Does Compulsory Voting Increase Support for Leftist Policy?
Journal
American Journal of Political Science
ISSN
0092-5853
ISSN-Digital
1540-5907
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2016-07
Author(s)
Abstract
Citizens unequally participate in referendums and this may systematically bias policy in favor of those who vote. Some view compulsory voting as an important tool to alleviate this problem while others worry about its detrimental effects on the legitimacy and quality of democratic decision-making. So far, however, we lack systematic knowledge about the causal effect of compulsory voting on public policy. We argue that sanctioned compulsory voting mobilizes citizens at the bottom of the income distribution and that this translates into an increase in support for leftist policies. We empirically explore the effects of a sanctioned compulsory voting law on direct-democratic decision-making in Switzerland. We find that compulsory voting significantly increases electoral support for leftist policy positions in referendums by up to 20 percentage points. We discuss the implications of these results for our understanding of the policy consequences of electoral institutions.
Language
English
Keywords
Voting
Turnout
Public Policy
Mobilization
Elections
Referendums
Direct Democracy
Social Policy
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Wiley
Publisher place
Hoboken, NJ
Volume
60
Number
3
Start page
752
End page
767
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
241435