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Death and Turnout: The Human Costs of War and Voter Participation in Democracies

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  • Michael T. Koch
  • Stephen P. Nicholson

Abstract

War heightens public interest in politics, especially when human lives are lost. We examine whether, and how, combat casualties affect the decision to vote in established democracies. Drawing from social psychology research on mortality salience, we expect increasing casualties to increase the salience of death, information that moves people to defend their worldview, especially nationalistic and ideological values. By heightening the importance of values, we propose that combat casualties increase the benefits of voting. In particular, we expect the effect of combat casualties to be pronounced among the least politically engaged. Using both cross‐national data of elections in 23 democracies over a 50‐year period and survey data from the United States and United Kingdom during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, we found that mounting casualties increase turnout. Furthermore, as expected, we found the effect of casualties to be most pronounced among those least interested in politics.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael T. Koch & Stephen P. Nicholson, 2016. "Death and Turnout: The Human Costs of War and Voter Participation in Democracies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(4), pages 932-946, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:60:y:2016:i:4:p:932-946
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12230
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    Cited by:

    1. Boland, Matthew & Godsell, David, 2020. "Local soldier fatalities and war profiteers: New tests of the political cost hypothesis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1).
    2. Kikuta,Kyosuke, 2022. "The drowning-out effect: voter turnout, uncertainty, and protests," IDE Discussion Papers 867, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    3. Anna Getmansky & Chagai M. Weiss, 2023. "Interstate Conflict Can Reduce Support for Incumbents: Evidence from the Israeli Electorate and the Yom Kippur War," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 67(2-3), pages 326-348, February.
    4. Mark D. Ramirez, 2021. "Understanding public blame attributions when private contractors are responsible for civilian casualties," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(1), pages 21-40, March.

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