| Chapter 1: | Symptoms |
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Figure 1.8. Voter turnout as a percentage of voting age population for Albuquerque and other comparable cities, 1974–1989.
Source. Calculated from data presented by Amy Bridges in Morning Glories: Municipal Reform in the Southwest (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997).
And finally, in the quintessential town meetings that govern towns in New England (primarily Vermont at this point), participation is typically about 20 percent of the town’s residents, with the rate of participation inversely related to the size of the town. (It should be noted that town meetings require a high level of commitment from citizens and are witness to a much deeper level of participation than voting.)29
Overall, the picture is quite clear: although Americans have many opportunities to vote, large proportions of the citizenry (majorities in most