Explaining Cross-National Variation in Voter Turnout (Paperback)

The dominant view in the field of voter turnout research is that we have established robust patterns and know relatively well why turnout is higher in some countries than in others. Key variables for explaining cross-national variation in voter turnout are compulsory voting, electoral system, level of economic development, unicameralism, size of country, and literacy rate. By conducting a comprehensive research strategy involving both general and time-specific cross-sectional analyses, this study tests a series of research hypotheses on datasets that spans 90 countries across a long time period (1950-2000). The results indicate that the majority of the determinants behind cross-national variation in voter turnout are time-specific. This means that we cannot (as previous research has done) discuss the determinants behind cross-national variation in voter turnout without taking the time dimension into account. Only very few determinants, like compulsory voting, economic development, flow of information, district size and equality in the distribution of income can be said cause variation in turnout across countries irrespective of time.