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Social Capital and Voter Turnout: Evidence from Saint's Day Fiestas in Mexico

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  • Atkinson, Matthew D.
  • Fowler, Anthony

Abstract

Social capital and community activity are thought to increase voter turnout, but reverse causation and omitted variables may bias the results of previous studies. This article exploits saint's day fiestas in Mexico as a natural experiment to test this causal relationship. Saint's day fiestas provide temporary but large shocks to the connectedness and trust within a community, and the timing of these fiestas is quasi-random. For both cross-municipality and within-municipality estimates, saint's day fiestas occurring near an election decrease turnout by 2.5 to 3.5 percentage points. So community activities that generate social capital can inhibit political participation. These findings may give pause to scholars and policy makers who assume that such community activity and social capital will improve the performance of democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Atkinson, Matthew D. & Fowler, Anthony, 2014. "Social Capital and Voter Turnout: Evidence from Saint's Day Fiestas in Mexico," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(1), pages 41-59, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:44:y:2014:i:01:p:41-59_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Federico Revelli & Roberto Zotti, 2019. "The sacred and the profane of budget cycles: evidence from Italian municipalities," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(6), pages 1446-1477, December.
    2. Jesús Peiró‐Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo‐Tadeo & Vicente Rios, 2020. "Well‐being in European regions: Does government quality matter?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 555-582, June.
    3. Jetter, Michael & Molina, Teresa, 2022. "Persuasive agenda-setting: Rodrigo Duterte’s inauguration speech and drugs in the Philippines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    4. Salomo Hirvonen & Jerome Schafer & Janne Tukiainen, 2022. "Policy Feedback and Civic Engagement: Evidence from the Finnish Basic Income Experiment," Discussion Papers 155, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    5. Achim Siegel & Jonas F. Schug & Monika A. Rieger, 2022. "Social Determinants of Remaining Life Expectancy at Age 60: A District-Level Analysis in Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-21, January.
    6. Alexander James & Nathaly M. Rivera & Brock Smith, 2022. "Cash Transfer and Voter Turnout," Working Papers wp536, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    7. Nadia Fiorino & Emma Galli & Nicola Pontarollo, 2021. "Does Social Capital Affect Voter Turnout? Evidence from Italy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 289-309, July.

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