Democracy, Voting, and Disenfranchisement in the United States: A Social Psychological Perspective

Abstract

Autonomy, engagement, and equality are defining features of democracy. Each of these features illuminates the challenge or incompleteness of our democratic aspirations: Autonomy or self‐governance is too easily surrendered, disengagement is evident when roughly half of eligible adults choose not to vote, and the inequality of our political voices is manifest in many ways, including a self‐perpetuating relationship between socioeconomic status and political participation. In addition to introducing the present collection of articles on the social psychology of voting, I argue that several concepts drawn from psychological measurement may contribute to making elections more fair. A signal detection framework may be used to assess the soundness of election reforms, with fraud and disenfranchisement conceptualized as two forms of error. The replacement of the Electoral College by a single aggregate national popular vote would not only be more democratic but would substantially reduce the likelihood of controversial outcomes in future presidential elections.