Family life and american politics: The "marriage gap" reconsidered

Eric Plutzer, Michael Mcburnett

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Scopus citations

Abstract

In recent years, several writers have identified marital status as a potentially important line of political cleavage, observing that singles are more likely to vote Democratic than married voters are. Changes in both the structure of American families and in the salience of "family politics" in the policy arena suggest increased attention to the political consequences of marital status and family life-style. This paper contributes to advancing theory concerning the relationship between family life and politics, and empirically evaluating several competing hypotheses concerning the so-called marriage gap in the 1972 through 1988 presidential elections.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)113-127
Number of pages15
JournalPublic Opinion Quarterly
Volume55
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1991

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Communication
  • History
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • General Social Sciences
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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