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Electoral Engineering and Cross-National Turnout Differences: What Role for Compulsory Voting?

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  • FRANKLIN, MARK N.

Abstract

Low electoral turnout is often considered to be bad for democracy, whether inherently or because it calls legitimacy into question or because low turnout implies lack of representation of certain groups and inegalitarian policies. Yet there would appear to be a straightforward cure for low turnout: make voting compulsory. Of the twenty-five countries in the International Almanac of Electoral History for which Katz has collected institutional data, four have compulsory voting. Turnout in these countries averages 89 per cent, as compared to 75 per cent in the other twenty-one countries.

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  • Franklin, Mark N., 1999. "Electoral Engineering and Cross-National Turnout Differences: What Role for Compulsory Voting?," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(1), pages 205-216, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:29:y:1999:i:01:p:205-216_21
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    Cited by:

    1. Jeffrey Milyo & David M. Primo, 2005. "The Effects of Campaign Finance Laws on Turnout, 1950-2000," Working Papers 0516, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 01 Feb 2006.
    2. repec:gig:joupla:v:1:y:2009:i:1:p:97-122 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Danny Hayes & Seth C. McKee, 2009. "The Participatory Effects of Redistricting," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(4), pages 1006-1023, October.
    4. Gemenis Kostas, 2018. "The Impact of Voting Advice Applications on Electoral Turnout: Evidence from Greece," Statistics, Politics and Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 161-179, December.
    5. Benny Geys & Bruno Heyndels, 2006. "Disentangling The Effects Of Political Fragmentation On Voter Turnout: The Flemish Municipal Elections," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 367-387, November.
    6. Mijeong Baek, 2009. "A Comparative Analysis of Political Communication Systems and Voter Turnout," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 376-393, April.
    7. Ailsa Henderson & Nicola McEwen, 2015. "Regions as Primary Political Communities: A Multi-Level Comparative Analysis of Turnout in Regional Elections," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 45(2), pages 189-215.
    8. Mark N. Franklin, 2001. "How Structural Factors Cause Turnout Variations at European Parliament Elections," European Union Politics, , vol. 2(3), pages 309-328, October.
    9. Lisa Hill, 2006. "Low Voter Turnout in the United States," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 18(2), pages 207-232, April.
    10. Charles J Pattie & Ron J Johnston, 2005. "Electoral Participation and Political Context: The Turnout–Marginality Paradox at the 2001 British General Election," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(7), pages 1191-1206, July.
    11. Schäfer, Armin, 2011. "Republican liberty and compulsory voting," MPIfG Discussion Paper 11/17, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    12. Tobias Streicher & Sascha L. Schmidt & Dominik Schreyer, 2019. "Referenda on Hosting the Olympics: What Drives Voter Turnout?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(5), pages 627-653, June.
    13. Adalbert Abraham Ghislain Melingui Bate, 2020. "The effect of education on voter's turnout in african presidential elections," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1607-1622.
    14. Bechtel, Michael M. & Hangartner, Dominik & Schmid, Lukas, 2018. "Compulsory voting, habit formation, and political participation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89714, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Sanne Zwart, 2007. "Fixing the Quorum: Representation versus Abstention," Economics Working Papers ECO2007/07, European University Institute.

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