Voter Turnout and the Dynamics of Electoral Competition in Established Democracies since 1945

This book shows how voter turnout is an indicator of the health of a democracy.

Mark N. Franklin (Author), Cees van der Eijk (With), Diana Evans (With), Michael Fotos (With), Wolfgang Hirczy de Mino (With), Michael Marsh (With), Bernard Wessels (With)

9780521541473, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 April 2004

294 pages, 12 b/w illus. 24 tables
22.6 x 15.1 x 1.9 cm, 0.398 kg

"This remarkable book repays attention from scholars and policymakers alike. It builds on two or more generations of careful scholarship, but literally takes that work to another level--in this case, another level of analysis." - Richard Johnston, University of Pennsylvania

Voting is a habit. People learn the habit of voting, or not, based on experience in their first few elections. Elections that do not stimulate high turnout among young adults leave a 'footprint' of low turnout in the age structure of the electorate as many individuals who were new at those elections fail to vote at subsequent elections. Elections that stimulate high turnout leave a high turnout footprint. So a country's turnout history provides a baseline for current turnout that is largely set, except for young adults. This baseline shifts as older generations leave the electorate and as changes in political and institutional circumstances affect the turnout of new generations. Among the changes that have affected turnout in recent years, the lowering of the voting age in most established democracies has been particularly important in creating a low turnout footprint that has grown with each election.

Figures
Tables
Preface
The authors
Introduction
1. Confronting the puzzles of voter turnout
2. A new approach to the calculus of voting
3. The role of generational replacement in turnout change
4. Rational responses to electoral competition
5. Explaining turnout change in 22 countries
6. Electoral competition and the individual citizen
7. Understanding turnout decline
8. The turnout puzzles revisited
Appendices: A. The surveys employed in this book
B. Aggregate data for established democracies, 1945–9
C. Supplementary findings
Bibliography
Author index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Political structure & processes [JPH]