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The Phenomenon of Puerto Rican Voting. LUIS RAUL CAMARA FUERTES. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. xiii + 144 pp. (Cloth USS 59.95)
This book is a welcome addition to the literature on voter turnout, particularly in Puerto Rico where empirical studies have been few and far between. It addresses the question of why, given the similarities between formal political institutions in the United States and Puerto Rico, elections in Puerto Rico tend to have a much higher voter turnout. This question is interesting given that many of the formal institutions governing elections in Puerto Rico would seem to point to lower levels of turnout. In addition, as Cámara Fuertes points out, Puerto Rico also has many of the demographic characteristics that have traditionally correlated with low voter turnout in the United States: a high percentage of young voters, low levels of education, and low income levels.
The book begins by looking at Puerto Rican voting behavior from a comparative perspective. Although Puerto Rico is initially compared with European and Latin American countries, the main reference for comparison throughout the book is the United States. This strategy is useful and makes for a quasi-experimental research design that Cámara Fuertes uses quite effectively to pinpoint the variables with the most explanatory power in the Puerto Rican case. He argues that we need to look at three...