Citation

Kahn JR, Mason WM. Am. Sociol. Rev. 1987; 52(2): 155-169.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, American Sociological Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Easterlin argues that his cohort crowding explanation of temporal variability in fertility trends applies to divorce, suicide, crime, and political alienation. Using two commonly employed survey items held to measure political alienation, we show that Easterlin's argument does not account for temporal variability in alienation between 1952 and 1980 in the United States. In addition, we find that a period basis, as distinguished from an age, cohort, or more elaborate basis, suffices to describe swings in alienation for the years under consideration. The size of young adult cohorts at each point in time, a key variable in Easterlin's argument, is correlated with the alienation of the entire adult population at each point in time. Although this result is consistent with the notion of a cohort crowding effect, it is not the one Easterlin predicted. The result is also, we argue, spurious. The issues associated with the rise of political alienation in the 1960s were primarily political and social, not economic, as would be required by a generic cohort crowding hypothesis.

Language: en