Generational Change in American Electoral Behavior

The relationship of social class to partisan choice in the United States has declined during the postwar years. Through an analysis of presidential election surveys conducted by the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan from 1948 through 1968, it is demonstrated that this decline is largely a result of generational change. Strong relationships between class and partisan choice persist among older voters, but among younger voters these relationships are weak. A time-series cohort analysis provides considerable support for an historically based generational explanation for age-group differences and permits examination of one process through which partisan realignments may occur.