scholarly journals Compulsory for Whom? Mandatory Voting and Electoral Participation in Brazil, 1986-2006

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Power
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Methodological Perspective ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mandatory Voting

Latin America contains roughly half of the world's countries that use compulsory voting, but this electoral institution has received only limited attention from researchers. This article examines the determinants of voter turnout in the world's largest electorate subject to mandatory voting, that of Brazil. In analyzing data from six national legislative elections held in Brazil between 1986 and 2006, the study finds that the impact of compulsory laws varies across social and economic groups. From a methodological perspective, the article argues that “compulsoriness” of mandatory voting legislation can be modeled by taking into account both exemptions to the law and the relevance of potential sanctions against non-voters. The issue of enforcement must be considered if we are to develop comprehensive models of electoral participation under conditions of compulsory voting.

Presidential Institutions and Electoral Participation in Concurrent Elections in Latin America

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Carreras
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Concurrent Elections

Previous studies of voter turnout in Latin America have found weak and inconsistent evidence for the link between political institutions and electoral participation. In this article, I use data from an expanded dataset of voter turnout in Latin America (1980–2016) to show that institutions do have an impact on citizens’ decisions on whether or not to participate in concurrent elections. Whereas previous studies analyzed the effect of legislative institutions on voter turnout, this article estimates a series of models that demonstrate the impact of presidential institutions and the political context surrounding presidential elections on electoral participation. The findings suggest that when first-order (presidential) and second-order (legislative) elections take place concurrently, electoral participation is influenced primarily by presidential institutions (term length, presidential powers, and electoral rules) and the electoral context in which the presidential elections take place (effective number of presidential candidates).

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.

Am I obliged to vote? A regression discontinuity analysis of compulsory voting with ill-informed voters

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Mathieu Turgeon ◽  
André Blais
Keyword(s):  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Young Voters ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Survey Sample ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact ◽  
What Matters

Abstract We study the impact of compulsory voting in Brazil, where voting is mandatory from age 18 to 70 and voluntary for those aged 16, 17 and 70+. Using a survey sample of 8008 respondents, we document voter confusion about how the age criterion applies. Some people falsely believe that what matters is one's age in an election year rather than on Election Day. Next, we perform a regression discontinuity (RD) analysis of compulsory voting among young voters with register-based data from six Brazilian elections (2008–2018). We find that the effect of compulsory voting is seriously underestimated if we focus solely on the discontinuities prescribed by the law. Our findings carry important implications for studies adopting the RD design where knowledge of the cutoff is expected of the units of interest (like those about compulsory voting) and confirm that compulsory voting is a strong institutional arrangement that promotes greater electoral participation.

scholarly journals Where Do Distrusting Voters Turn if There is No Viable Exit or Voice Option? The Impact of Political Trust on Electoral Behaviour in the Belgian Regional Elections of June 2009

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Hooghe ◽  
Sofie Marien ◽  
Teun Pauwels
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Political Distrust ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
Regional Elections ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIt has been suggested that political distrust is associated with lower levels of voter turnout and increased votes for challenger or populist parties. We investigate the relationship between political (dis)trust and electoral behaviour using the 2009 Belgian Election Study. Belgium presents an interesting case because compulsory voting (with an accompanying turnout rate of 90.4 per cent) compels distrusting voters to participate in elections. Nevertheless, distrusting voters are significantly more inclined to cast a blank or invalid vote. Second, distrust is positively associated with a preference for extreme right (Vlaams Belang) and populist (Lijst Dedecker) parties. Third, in party systems where there is no supply of viable challengers (i.e. the French-speaking region of Belgium), the effect of political trust on party preference is limited. We conclude that electoral effects of political distrust are determined by the electoral and party system and the supply of electoral protest.

scholarly journals The Coronavirus Pandemic and Voter Turnout: Addressing the Impact of Covid-19 on Electoral Participation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés Santana ◽  
José Rama ◽  
Fernando Casal Bértoa
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Basque Country ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
External Shocks ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Electoral Fraud ◽  
Civic Duty ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Regional Elections ◽  
The Impact

External shocks have been shown to be able to alter countries’ political dynamics in a deep manner. The number of works examining the impact of economic crisis, natural disasters or even terrorist attacks are numerous. However, the literature addressing the political effects of the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is still in its infancy. Definitively, the pandemic has constituted an unpredictable external shock not only affecting the health of millions around the planet but also damaging the economic and social stability of most countries. Politically, it has forced electoral authorities in some countries to postpone elections (e.g. Kiribati, North Macedonia, Sri Lanka), to suspend voting rights for those infected with the virus (e.g. Galicia and Basque Country in Spain) or to adapt postal vote regulations (e.g. Bavaria in Germany) in order to guarantee citizens’ voting rights and diminish electoral fraud. Trying to fill a lacuna in the literature, the goal of this article is to give a first and nuanced examination on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted electoral participation all over the world. To that end we have collected data on all parliamentary, presidential and regional elections held worldwide during the first seven months since the COVID-19 outbreak became recognized as a health emergency of global scope and started to affect the organization of elections (March 1st-September 30th, 2020). Our results show that while voter turnout has not generally declined in comparison with those elections held before the pandemic, electoral participation is lower in polities hit by the pandemic the most, both in terms of infections and – especially - deceases. This seems to point to the fact that when faced with a choice (civic duty vs. personal risk), the fear of becoming infected will constrain voters to opt for the former.

scholarly journals Compulsory Voting, Identity, and Nation Building - The Importance of the Compulsory Vote

Federalism-E ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-49
Author(s):  
Joel Holdaway
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
National Election ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
The World ◽  
Voting Age ◽  
Registered Voters ◽  
Registered Voter

One hundred twenty five euros. This is the fine that Belgian citizens are liable for if they abstain from voting more than once in a national election.1 Not surprisingly, voter turnout in Belgium is one of the highest in the world and amongst the top three in industrialized liberal democracies. Between 1978 and 1999, the average voter turnout for registered voters in Belgium was ninety-three percent and the average turnout for those of voting age was eighty-seven percent.2 This marks a clear departure from regimes such as France, wherein the registered voter turnout for the legislative elections during the same period was seventy-one percent3 [...]

scholarly journals Mandatory Voting: The Wrong Response to Low Voter Turnout

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-26
Author(s):  
Jared Burton
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Western World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Wrong Response ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Voting Age ◽  
Registered Voter ◽  
Do So ◽  
Mandatory Voting

The trend of declining voter turnout across the western world has led some in Canada to call for mandatory voting. Australia is often cited as a successful example of compulsory voting in a Westminster system. While the aim to increase voter turnout is noble, there are many non-coercive methods of improving democracy and voter turnout that Canada ought to adapt before resorting to mandatory voting. Assessed methods include electoral reform, lowering the voting age, and instituting online voting; all are non-coercive ways to improve public satisfaction with the political process in Canada. Additionally, mandatory voting reduces Canadians’ ability to abstain from participating in the political system should they choose to do so which could have important philosophical implications. Furthermore,voter turnout data for Australia does not take into account important differences between registered voter turnout and voting age population turnout. Importantly, when analyzed these numbers indicate that compulsory voting in Australia is not as successful as many believe. Despite its ostensible attraction as a clear way to increase voter turnout, a legal requirement to vote is not a panacea to the issues of political distrust, dissatisfaction, and disengagement in Canada that are the root causes of low voter turnout.

scholarly journals A General Model of Abstention Under Compulsory Voting

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Katz ◽  
Ines Levin
Keyword(s):  
General Model ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
District Level ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Democratic Performance ◽  
Alternative Sources ◽  
Mandatory Voting

Invalid voting and absenteeism are alternative sources of abstention under compulsory voting. Previous research failed to systematically study the mechanisms behind each form of non-voting and the relationships between them. We develop an analytical framework and an empirical strategy to jointly examine invalid voting and absenteeism in Brazil, the world’s largest democracy with mandatory voting. Using Bayesian inferential methods and analyzing both individual and district-level data, we show that less educated and politically knowledgeable citizens are less likely to vote and, when they do, they are typically unable to successfully complete their ballot. Unlike absenteeism, invalid voting also has a political dimension reflecting voters’ disenchantment with elections and democratic performance. Both sources of abstention coexist and, together, undermine electoral participation.

The Consequences of Compulsory Voting

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-56
Author(s):  
Shane P. Singh
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Income Growth ◽  
Voter Participation ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mandatory Voting ◽  
Voting Laws

This chapter reviews the growing literature on compulsory voting’s consequences. Compulsory voting has an unsurprising upward impact on voter participation, which lessens the impact of many socioeconomic and demographic forerunners of turnout, thereby making the composition of the voting population better reflect the distribution of eligible voters. Further, invalid balloting tends to be more common under compulsory voting. Compelled voters are also less likely to cast ballots that correspond with their preferences. Many studies indicate that mandatory voting has an educative effect and can socialize people into political engagement, with others casting strong doubt on this possibility. A small number of studies have assessed whether compulsory voting shapes attitudes, election outcomes, the behavior of political parties, policy characteristics, and income growth and inequality, with few clear patterns yet established. Compulsory voting laws have the greatest impact where sanctions for abstention are enforced and meaningful.

How Compulsory Voting Affects Parties

2021 ◽  
pp. 132-141
Author(s):  
Shane P. Singh
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
The Political ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Ideological Space ◽  
Mandatory Rules ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mandatory Voting ◽  
Get Out The Vote

This second theoretical chapter lays out expectations about the impact of compulsory voting on the ways in which political parties seek votes. It argues that compulsory voting’s influence depends on whether parties are situated inside or outside of the political mainstream. It first proposes that parties’ reduction of get-out-the-vote tactics under mandatory rules will be stronger if they belong to the political mainstream. It then develops expectations about mandatory voting’s influence on the ways in which parties position themselves to attract support. The chapter puts forth the hypothesis that compulsory voting incentivizes mainstream parties to move toward the center of ideological space in an effort to appeal to voting populations that are broadly reflective of society as a whole. For non-mainstream parties, alternatively, mandatory voting incentivizes vote seeking at the extremes in order to appeal to those who are cajoled to the voting booth against their will.

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