Mobilizing Poor Voters

Using network analysis and quantitative and qualitative data, this book explains why candidates use clientelistic strategies to mobilize poor voters.

Why do poor people often vote against their material interests? This puzzle has been famously studied within wealthy Western democracies, yet the fact that the poor voter paradox also routinely manifests within poor countries has remained unexplored. This book studies how this paradox emerged in India, the world's largest democracy. Tariq Thachil shows how arguments from studies of wealthy democracies (such as moral values voting) and the global south (such as patronage or ethnic appeals) cannot explain why poor voters in poor countries support parties that represent elite policy interests. He instead draws on extensive survey data and fieldwork to document a novel strategy through which elite parties can recruit the poor, while retaining the rich. He shows how these parties can win over disadvantaged voters by privately providing them with basic social services via grassroots affiliates. Such outsourcing permits the party itself to continue to represent the policy interests of their privileged base.

This book assembles the perspectives and knowledge of top political and voting turnout specialists to show how Trump can be defeated in the 2020 election. Turnout!offers the political strategy for approaching "emergency elections," such as the 2020 presidential race, and spells out the nuts and bolts for civic groups and individuals to effectively turn out the vote. Arguing for and facilitating new coalitions and a united front between social movement groups with the Democratic Party, Turnout!is both a creative work of political vision combined with a detailed manual and talking points for turning out millions of non-voters, who must vote to send Trump and his GOP and corporate cronies packing. Both community and movement groups as well as individuals will find this an invaluable resource for mobilizing voters who can change America's future. Contributors include top officials and progressive leaders in the most effective and diverse voter turnout organizations in the US. They have years of experience in voter turnout operations, and include Voto Latino, Voter.org and She the People. Turnout!shows the political strategies underlying their work and the nitty gritty tactics; these show how to reach and mobilize millions of discouraged, apathetic, or suppressed voters, including low-income, African-American, Latinx, student and youth, and working-class voters. The book shows that turnout is a community as well as individual act. It fleshes out the politics of connection, community building and empowerment that will bring out many millions of new voters to build a stronger and more diverse democracy in the US.

The first edition of Get Out the Vote! broke ground by introducing a new scientific approach to the challenge of voter mobilization and profoundly influenced how campaigns operate. In this expanded and updated edition, the authors incorporate data from more than one hundred new studies, which shed new light on the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of various campaign tactics, including door-to-door canvassing, e-mail, direct mail, and telephone calls. Two new chapters focus on the effectiveness of mass media campaigns and events such as candidate forums and Election Day festivals. Available in time for the core of the 2008 presidential campaign, this practical guide on voter mobilization is sure to be an important resource for consultants, candidates, and grassroots organizations. Praise for the first edition: "Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber have studied turnout for years. Their findings, based on dozens of controlled experiments done as part of actual campaigns, are summarized in a slim and readable new book called Get Out the Vote!, which is bound to become a bible for politicians and activists of all stripes." —Alan B. Kreuger, in the New York Times "Get Out the Vote! shatters conventional wisdom about GOTV." —Hal Malchow in Campaigns & Elections "Green and Gerber's recent book represents important innovations in the study of turnout."—Political Science Review "Green and Gerber have provided a valuable resource for grassroots campaigns across the spectrum."—National Journal

Explains cross-national differences in the political and partisan representation of low-income voters, focusing attention on the electoral geography of income.

Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism studies distributive politics: how parties and governments use material resources to win elections. The authors develop a theory that explains why loyal supporters, rather than swing voters, tend to benefit from pork-barrel politics; why poverty encourages clientelism and vote buying; and why redistribution and voter participation do not justify non-programmatic distribution.

Develops a new theory of how politicians campaign and deploy electoral clientelism in weak party systems.

The Political Logic of Poverty Relief places electoral politics and institutional design at the core of poverty alleviation. The authors develop a theory with applications to Mexico about how elections shape social programs aimed at aiding the poor. They also assess whether voters reward politicians for targeted poverty alleviation programs.