ABSTRACT
Various explanations have been offered over the roughly 70-year history of voting behavior research, but two explanations in particular have garnered the most attention and generated the most debate in the literature on voting behavior. These explanations are known as the Columbia Model and the Michigan Model, and describing these two theories – including their respective strengths and weaknesses – is the subject of this chapter. The concept of partisanship was refined somewhat by Phil Converse, one of the co-authors of The American Voter, some six years after the publication of this landmark book. To recap, the Columbia Model, with its focus on the role of socio-demographic factors, including social class and membership within salient social groups, brings to the fore a consideration of how political decision-making is informed by one's place in the social hierarchy and one's connection to others who share in their social identity.
