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Your vote counts on account of the way it is counted: An institutional solution to the paradox of not voting

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  • Thomas Schwartz

Abstract

When we explicitly lay out all its steps, we find that the Paradox of Not Voting (since the chance of one vote's making a difference is about zero, why trouble to vote?) rests on a false but hitherto unremarked assumption about the institutional context of elections. My solution to the Paradox is more conservative than others that have been proposed, and it yields a rational-choice model of voting whose consequence accord well with empirical findings on turnout. Copyright Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1987

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  • Thomas Schwartz, 1987. "Your vote counts on account of the way it is counted: An institutional solution to the paradox of not voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 101-121, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:54:y:1987:i:2:p:101-121
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00123001
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