Voter turnout and abstention in context: A multi-level analysis of the factors affecting voter turnout and abstention in systems of multi-level governance
Abstract
Abstract
This collaborative research project (CRP) tackles the persistent problem of low/declining turnout. The fact that a handful of countries have managed to evade the problem or that this or that country shows a sudden rise in turnout now and then only serves to sharpen the analytical puzzle and the policy conundrum. Building on the achievements and confronting the problems in the existing literature, the CRP develops a set of coordinated individual projects focusing on the application of multi-level modeling to the analysis of turnout in systems of multi-level governance. Using a common conceptual framework, the CRP analyses the effects on turnout, and on the individual-level determinants of turnout, of varying institutional configurations, social structures, and political cultures with specific reference to aspects of community cohesion, civic duty, political knowledge, and poverty and social exclusion. Although much of the individual-level data required for the project is readily available (ESS, ISSP, W/EVS, CSES, EB), one of the individual projects will collect new panel data across elections in a major system of multi-level governance in order to provide the extra analytical leverage that comes from panel studies. Given that a belief in the importance of contextual or system-level variables is a major motivator of the project, the CRP will devote substantial resources to the identification and collection of data on such variables. Once this phase is complete, the individual-level and system-level variables will be brought together in a strategy of multi-level analysis using traditional methods and recent major innovations. It is anticipated that the CRP will make a major contribution to our understanding of the sources of voter turnout and abstention and to the formulation of policies and actions aimed at facilitating and mobilizing maximum voter participation in elections at all levels.
Project Leader:
Professor Richard Sinnott, University College Dublin, Ireland
Principal Investigators:
Professor Eva Anduiza-Perea, Universita Autonoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
Professor Karen Jusko, Stanford University, United States
Associated Partners:
Professor Soren Thomsen, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Professor André Blais, Université de Montréal, Canada
