N EVERY presidential election since 1960, the percentage of eligible Americans who chose to vote has declined from the previous election.1 This decrease in voter turnout has caused the focus of research on participation to shift from the choice between candidates and parties to the choice of whether or not to vote. In the desire to find a satisfactory explanation for why more and more Americans are staying home on election day, research on nonvoting has proliferated in recent years (See Abramson and Aldrich 1982; Brody 1978; Burnham 1980; Cassel and Hill 1981; Ferejohn and Fiorina 1974; Hadley 1978; Hout and Knoke 1974; Maddox 1980; Nisbet 1976; Perry 1973; Reiter 1979; Shaffer 1980; Tarrance 1976; Wolfinger and Rosenstone 1980.) Previous attempts to explain declining voter turnout have encountered the puzzle of participation (Brody 1978). This paradox refers to demographic and structural changes in the nation since 1960, such as the rising level of education or less restrictive registration practices, which would lead one to expect higher levels of turnout instead of the actual decline. Given the limitations of demographic and structural explanations for declining turnout, researchers have emphasized certain attitudinal trends of the previous two decades. Americans have become less attached to the two major political parties, less trusting of elected officials and political institutions, and less confident of their own ability to influence the political system. This disillusionment and dismay over the course and direction of American politics, because it parallels the decline in turnout, suggests that alienation is a possible explanation for increased nonvoting since 1960. However, the actual measurement of alienated attitudes, as well as the estimation of their impact on voting, has proven somewhat confusing, and contradictory conclusions have resulted. One major assumption a faulty one according to the author has been that alienation and are synonomous. The latter term refers to one particular dimension of the more general concept of political support as specified in the works of Easton and Dennis (1965) and Gamson (1968). Those high in cynicism feel that the government is not producing policies according to expectations, while those low in cynicism are