Raymond Wolfinger
Professor Emeritus of Political Science
Phone: (510) 642-4653
Office Location: 708B Barrows
Office Hours:
Fall 2008 Course: Not teaching in Political Science this term
After graduation from UC Berkeley and Army service Professor Wolfinger received his MA from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. from Yale. His political experience includes a year each in New Haven City Hall and the U.S. Congress and intermittent lobbying on behalf of a voter registration measure that was incorporated in the "motor voter" act. Professor Wolfinger came to Berkeley in 1971 after ten years at Stanford and usually teaches a year-long graduate seminar in American politics and an undergraduate course on Congress. He is writing a book on aspects of voter turnout: individual characteristics related to turnout, comparative registration systems, and political calculations behind voter registration reform. Recent publications include "The First Seven Years of the Political Life Cycle" (with Benjamin Highton), American Journal of Political Science, 2001; "The Political Implications of Higher Turnout" (with Benjamin Highton), British Journal of Political Science, 2001; and "Registering and Voting with Motor Voter" (with Jonathan Hoffman), PS: Political Science and Politics, 2001.
The Myth of the Independent Voter (1992)
Few events in American politics over the past two decades have generated more attention than the increasing number of voters calling themselves Independent. Since the early 1970s nearly two out of five citizens seemed to be without ties to either political party. The Myth of the Independent Voter demonstrates that the widespread belief in declining party affiliation is simply wrong and that only a small segment of the voters are truly without partisan ties.