Organized labor and electoral participation in American national elections

I consider the role of unions in fostering electoral participation in the U .S. Using aggregate and individual data, I argue that turnout varies direct ly with the organizational strength of unions, not only through their abili ty to mobilize their own member per se. but also, and more importantly: thr ough their ability to effect the rate of participation of voters in general . My results imply that unionization helps explain much of the post-1960 de cline in voter turnout. The magnitude of the relationship is demonstrated t o rival that of more conventional determinants of voter turnout such as edu cation.