URBANIZATION, SOCIAL DIVERSITY, VOTER TURNOUT, AND POLITICAL COMPETITION IN U.S. ELECTIONS: ANALYSIS OF CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS FOR 1972.

The article discusses urbanization, social diversity, voter turnout, and political competition in U.S. elections. The argument forwarded in the paper is that as voter turnout increases in sheer numbers alone so do the number and degree of political differences within the electorate simply because more people are voting. This makes it more difficult for one candidate or party to be appealing to all voters which, in turn, should make the election more competitive. However, while some studies report a positive association between turnout and competition, other studies have reported no relationship or an indeterminate one. Moreover, these previous studies on the turnout-competition hypothesis have many of the same limitations and comparability problems as those for studies testing the urbanization-competition hypothesis. This paper also tested the hypothesis that greater social diversity within congressional districts would have a positive relationship with greater competition independently of the urbanization level of districts.