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Altruistic Theory Of Voting Essay

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The Michigan model of voter choice most prominently featured in the book The American Voter emphasises the role that social identity plays on our decisions made at the ballot box which we gain from our environment around us such as our parents’ political views. In this essay, I, will show why the Michigan model of voting offers an inadequate explanation for the way people vote and why I believe that the rational choice theory of voting specifically the altruistic theory of voting with a focus on a partisan form of altruistic voting offers a better explanation for why people vote the way that they do.
I will achieve this goal by at first putting forth my reasoning and evidence for why I believe that the partisan altruistic theory of voting offers the best explanation then I …show more content…
The altruistic theory of voting helps explain the relativity high turnout in democracies for as (Fowler, 2006) notes “Although the probability that a single vote affects the outcome of an election is quite small, the number of people who enjoy the benefit when the preferred alternative wins is large. As a result, people who care about benefits to others and who think one of the alternatives makes others better off are more likely to vote” therefore we have reason to suspect that the altruistic theory of voting is a more accurate description of why people vote than the “selfish” theory of

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