scholarly journals What Affects Voter Turnout? A Review Article/Meta-Analysis of Aggregate Research

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Stockemer
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Current Theory ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Behavioural Research ◽  
Strong Consensus ◽  
Electoral Turnout ◽  
Number Of Parties

For more than 40 years, studies trying to explain macro-level electoral turnout have been one of the pillars of political behavioural research. From January 2004 to December 2013 alone, more than 130 articles were published in peer-reviewed journals using turnout at the national, regional or local level as the dependent variable. This meta-analysis tries to synthesize the results of these studies. I find there is a strong consensus in the literature that turnout is higher under compulsory voting, if the election is important, and if it is held in a small country. I also find that the influence of most other predictor variables, including the type of electoral system, the number of parties, development, income inequalities and electoral closeness is inconclusive at best. These results hint at the fact that the determinants of turnout might be more complex than the current theory suggests and is rather more context dependent.

Electoral turnout in Muslim-majority states: A macro-level panel analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Stockemer ◽  
Susan Khazaeli
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Islamic Religion ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Contextual Indicators ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Impact

AbstractHigh voter turnout gives legitimacy to the political system and strengthens the stability of a country. Since voter turnout matters, it is important to determine which factors boost electoral participation. While there is a vast literature on turnout focusing on institutional, socio-economic, and contextual indicators, there appears to be a shortage of scholarship on the relationship between religion and turnout. In our study, we evaluate the impact of the Islamic religion on electoral participation. Drawing on a large dataset that incorporates all legislative elections worldwide from 1970 to 2010 and controlling for compulsory voting, the electoral system type, the decisiveness of the election, the competitiveness of the election, the size of the country, the regime type and development, we find that Muslim-majority countries have lower turnout rates than majority non-Muslim countries. We also find electoral participation to be lower in countries where Islamic tenets are more strongly entrenched in politics.

The Political Consequences of the Alternative Vote: Lessons from Western Canada

2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 647-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold J. Jansen
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
System Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
Western Canada ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Alternative Vote ◽  
Number Of Parties

Abstract. The alternative vote (AV) is an increasingly popular proposal for electoral reform, largely due to Australia's success with it. This article considers the experiences of Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia with AV in past provincial elections. AV had little impact on proportionality and voter turnout, but did contribute to significantly higher rates of ballot rejection. AV was associated with an increase in the number of parties competing in elections, but this is more likely due to a changing social structure than electoral system change. AV facilitated coalitions where incentives to cooperate already existed, as in British Columbia, but it did little to encourage or induce coalitions in Alberta and Manitoba. On balance, it differed little from the single member plurality system.Résumé. Le vote préférentiel (PV) est une proposition de plus en plus populaire de réforme électorale. Son attrait s'explique en grande partie par son succès en Australie. Cet article étudie les expériences de VP lors d'élections provinciales au Manitoba, en Alberta et en Colombie-Britannique. Le VP a eu peu de répercussions sur la proportionnalité et sur la participation électorale, mais a contribué à augmenter considérablement le nombre de bulletins de vote rejetés. On observe, en association avec le VP, une augmentation du nombre des partis en présence, mais ceci était vraisemblablement dû à l'évolution des structures sociales plus qu'au changement du système électoral. Le VP a facilité les coalitions lorsque des raisons de coopérer existaient déjà, comme en Colombie-Britannique, mais n'a guère encouragé ni provoqué de coalitions en Alberta ni au Manitoba. En définitive, la différence avec le système majoritaire uninominal a été négligeable.

scholarly journals Voter Turnout

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Blais ◽  
Eva Anduiza
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Electoral Turnout ◽  
Over Time

Participating in elections is an essential component of democracy: citizens in democratic political systems are expected to be able to vote and to choose their representatives. Through their vote, either directly in presidential elections or indirectly in parliamentary elections, citizens also select among competing government alternatives. Turnout is thus a central topic in politics. Although turnout is the most widespread form of political participation, many people do not vote. Moreover, turnout varies substantially over time and across types of elections within a country as well as across countries. Who votes and under what conditions people are more likely to turn out are central questions in this literature. Explanations for turnout variation have focused both on individual characteristics (such as age, education, or political attitudes) and contextual features (such as the effect of compulsory voting, electoral systems, or party competition). Far less research has been devoted to the consequences of electoral turnout.

Gender Gaps in Electoral Turnout: Surveys versus Administrative Censuses

2021 ◽  
pp. 147892992110195
Author(s):  
Paulo Cox ◽  
Mauricio Morales Quiroga
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Electoral Turnout ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Official Data ◽  
Rule Out

Gender gaps in voter turnout are usually studied using opinion surveys rather than official census data. This is because administrative censuses usually do not disaggregate turnout according to voters’ sex. Without this official information, much of the research on gender gaps in electoral turnout relies on survey respondents’ self-reported behavior, either before or after an election. The decision to use survey data implies facing several potential drawbacks. Among them are the turnout overstatement bias and the attrition or nonresponse bias, both affecting the estimation of factors explaining turnout and any related statistical analysis. Furthermore, these biases may be correlated with covariates such as gender: men, more than women, may systematically overstate their electoral participation. We analyze turnout gender gaps in Chile, comparing national surveys with official administrative data, which in Chile are publicly available. Crucially, the latter includes the official record of sex, age, and the electoral behavior—whether the individual voted or not—for about 14 million registered individuals. Based on a series of statistical models, we find that analysis based on survey data is likely to rule out gender gaps in electoral participation. Carrying out the same exercises, but with official data, leads to the opposite conclusion, namely, that there is a sizable gender gap favoring women.

Too sick to vote? Public health and voter turnout in Russia during the 1990s

2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Therese C. Reitan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
The Political ◽  
Aggregate Level ◽  
Regional Data ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
Electoral Turnout

Determinants of political participation and electoral turnout are still of great interest within political science and three broad types of factors have been found to influence turnout significantly; individual or area-specific traits, characteristics of the electoral systems, and features relating to the political climate in individual elections. Within the first group, socio-economic resources, typically education, income, and occupation, have been found to be particularly important. This article proposes that public health is also a relevant form of social and political resources at the aggregate level. Regional data on life expectancy and electoral turnout from Russia—a country with dramatically deteriorated public health during the 1990s—were therefore correlated with each other. Overall, correlations were positive and significant, and there is, then, reason to investigate further the possible relationship between public health and the propensity to turn out at elections.

scholarly journals The impact of using proportional representation system on the fragmentation of the party system in Algeria. Applied to the elections of the National People’s Assembly (1997–2017)

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Mahmoud Mahgoub
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Effective Number ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Representation System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of using proportional representation system on the fragmentation of the party system in the Algerian political system within the period from 1997 to 2017, in which Algeria has experienced five legislative elections regularly every five years by testing a hypothesis about adopting the proportional representation system on the basis of the closed list during the foregoing legislative elections has obviously influenced the exacerbation of the Algerian party system’s fragmentation, compared to other factors. Design/methodology/approach The essence of the theoretical framework of this study is to address the effect of the electoral system as an independent variable on the party system as a dependent variable. The starting point for that framework is to reassess the “Duverger’s law,” which appeared since the early 1950s and has influenced the foregoing relationship, and then to review the literature on a new phase that tried to provide a more accurate mechanism for determining the number of parties and their relative weight, whether in terms of electoral votes or parliamentary seats. This means that researchers began to use a measure called the effective number of parties (ENP) for Laakso and Taagepera since 1979. The study elaborates the general concepts of the electoral system and the party system. It used Laakso, Taagepera index of the “ENP” to measure the phenomenon of fragmentation party during the five legislative elections from 1997 to 2017 in Algeria. Findings The results of the study reveal that the proportional representation electoral system – beside other factors – had clear impacts on the fragmentation of the Algerian party system by all standards, whether on the level of the apparent rise in the number of the parties represented in the Algerian parliament from 10 parties in 1997 election to 36 parties in 2017 election or according to the index of Laakso and Taagepera (ENP). The average number of effective number of electoral parties in the five elections was around 7.66, and the average number of effective number of parliamentary parties in the five elections was around 4.39, which puts Algeria in an advanced degree of the fragmentation of the party system. Originality/value This study about the phenomenon of the fragmentation of the party system, which is one of the new subjects in the field of comparative politics – globally and in the Arab world. Hence, the value of this study aims to shed light on this mysterious area of science, the fragmentation of the party system in the Algerian political system during the period from 1997 to 2017.

scholarly journals Personalizace na komunální úrovni: existuje a lze ji v českém prostředí zkoumat?

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-221
Author(s):  
Andrea Smolkova ◽  
Stanislav Balík
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Electoral Behaviour

Against the background of current research and literature, the article discusses local level-personalization in the Czech Republic as well as the ways it can be studied. Emphasising topics such as personalization of the electoral behaviour, electoral system, and political elites’ strategy, the authors present a novel research design aimed at identifying and better understanding the phenomenon of personalization on the local level. The research design develops some original identifiers such as popularity of the candidate, while also employing traditional criteria such as preferential voting or incumbency effect.

scholarly journals Determinants of voter turnout in Nsukka Council of Enugu State, South Eastern Nigeria

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (45) ◽  
pp. 109-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cletus Famous Nwankwo
Keyword(s):  
Marital Status ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Stepwise Logistic Regression ◽  
Stepwise Logistic Regression Analysis ◽  
Significant Negative Relationship ◽  
Enugu State ◽  
Effect Of Age

AbstractVoting is becoming of significance in Nigeria, as in many other countries in Africa. Although Nigerian electoral politics has attracted full attention from scholars, there is little research on the factors that determine voter turnout in the country at the local level, especially the South-East geopolitical zone (GPZ). This paper is a stepwise logistic regression analysis of the determinants of voting in Nsukka council in Enugu State, South-East GPZ of Nigeria. The results show that age (0.230), education (0.532), marital status (1.355), political trust (1.309) and partisanship (˗0.570) are significant predictors of voter turnout. The effect of age, education, marital status and political trust on voting is positive and statistically significant, but partisanship has a statistically significant negative relationship with voting (p<0.01). The paper highlights the importance of local level geographical differentials in the factors influencing voting in Nigeria.

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