Poverty and Voting in America Essay - 3591 Words

Review of the Literature: For my topic of research, the dynamics of poverty and voting in America, I used a vast number of sources in an attempt to produce the most accurate and broad discussion possible. The sources I believe to be the most reliable were: 1) the scholarly works (Friedman; Raskin), which were purely scientific and did not include political biases, but rather examined the facts from as neutral a point of view as possible; 2) the government reports (DeNavas-Walt; Dept. of Commerce; Dept. of Labor, McNeil), which also appeared to be politically neutral and created in a scientific fashion. These two types of sources mainly provided statistics on voting and poverty numbers through charts and graphs. The next set of†¦show more content†¦Though Democrats are knocked for some things, liberal policy is expounded and defended while conservatives/Republicans are usually portrayed as the bad guys in government. The last category of sources includes â€Å"The Poor† and Project Vote, both websites of organizations touting their own successes. Instead of believing that that all of the advancements they’ve claimed to have done are truthful and positive, the reader must be skeptical and cannot be sure that their statistics were garnered scientifically. Discussion: In The Working Poor, David Shipler reports that in the 2000 presidential election, â€Å"three quarters of those with family incomes over $75,000 voted †¦ [while] a mere 38 percent of those whose households took in less than $10,000 [voted]† (287). These sorts of figures were not an anomaly. In the six presidential elections from 1980 to 2000, the average voter turnout of people in the bottom fifth of the income quintiles was 53 percent, while the top fifth averaged over 80 percent (Cervantes). The average household in the bottom fifth had an income under $11,500 during each election year, while the top fifth averaged an income close to $118,000 (McNeil). The 2004 election was no different, with 55 percent of the votes cast by people with incomes of $50,000 and up (â€Å"Election†). That means over half of the votes cast were by a group that controls 70 percent of the nation’s wealthShow MoreRelatedDemocracy By Robert Dahl : Democracy1518 Words   |  7 Pa gesStates of America. Fortunately the notions of democracy can also be found in some developing countries such as India.  ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬Although democratic views and notions are found throughout Indian politics and its associated practices India does not prove to be completely democratic in relation to Robert Dahl’s criteria of democracy highlighted in his book, On Democracy. 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