Levels, trends and determinants of pluralism: A comparative analysis of U.S. counties

Abstract

This paper is concerned with developing empirical indicators of pluralism, monitoring them over time, and theoretically constructing and empirically estimating a multivariate model to explain variation between U.S. counties. New analytical findings are presented regarding levels, trends and determinants in two aspects of pluralism: voter turnout and interparty political competition. Three social structural components — structural incentives, structural barriers, and structural cleavages were measured and used to explain the majority of the variation between counties in these two indicators of pluralism.