Search results for "Turnout"
showing 10 items of 14 documents
How representative are referendums? Evidence from 20 years of Swiss referendums
2017
Direct democracy allows citizens to reverse decisions made by legislatures and even initiate new laws which parliaments are unwilling to pass, thereby, as its proponents argue, leading to more representative policies than would have obtained under a purely representative democracy. Yet, turnout in referendums is usually lower than in parliamentary elections and tends to be skewed towards citizens of high socio-economic status. Consequently, critics of direct democracy argue that referendum outcomes may not be representative of the preferences of the population at large. We test this assertion using a compilation of post-referendum surveys encompassing 148 national referendums held in Switze…
Left-Authoritarians and Voter Turnout in West European Countries
2017
Parties with a left profile on economic issues and an authoritarian profile on socio-cultural issues have been largely absent from the supply side of the typical post-World-War-II policy space of West European democracies. As a result, citizens with economically left and socio-culturally authoritarian policy positions have faced difficulties in identifying parties that match their preference bundle. Building on previous inquiries into the party preferences of left-authoritarians, this study hypothesizes that the cross-pressures left-authoritarians typically encounter when looking for a party that matches their preferences translate into an overall lower likelihood to turn out to vote in nat…
Ethical and Civic Education and the Social Commitment of University Students
2011
Recent decades have seen growing international concern about the lack of social commitment among young people, shown in their failure to participate in social affairs, scant interest in formal politics, and low turnout at elections.
 First, the international framework which forms the background to our paper is outlined. The ethical and civic education which university students receive is discussed, in the context of the social mission of the university and the European Higher Education Area. We then move on to examine one of the most promising initiatives in this field: service learning. We conclude with a proposal containing some suggestions of relevance to higher education. The need …
Economic globalisation, the perceived room to manoeuvre of national governments, and electoral participation: Evidence from the 2001 British General …
2016
Recent macro-level research argues that economic globalisation negatively affects electoral turnout by constraining the leeway of national governments and thereby rendering elections less meaningful to voters. This article analyses the link between perceptions of the national government's room to manoeuvre and turnout on the individual level. Drawing on the 2001 British General Election, it is shown that citizens who believe that economic globalisation leaves the national government with less influence on the economy are less likely to report to have voted. Further findings also support the proposed theoretical model according to which room to manoeuvre perceptions affect turnout via views …
Correcting Maura: Incidence and Amendment of Article 29 in the Province of Valencia during the Thirties
2019
El artículo 29 de la Ley electoral de 1907 establecía que no habría elección en caso de que hubiera tantos candidatos como puestos a cubrir en unos comicios. Y seguía vigente el 12 de abril de 1931, cuando se celebraron las elecciones municipales que dieron vida a la Segunda República. Sus consecuencias –la existencia de concejales y ayuntamientos no electos, siguieron presentes hasta las elecciones municipales parciales de abril de 1933. El propósito del presente artículo es mostrar la incidencia y la corrección del artículo 29 en la provincia de Valencia. Un segundo objetivo consiste en comparar, desde una nueva perspectiva, su incidencia en las provincias que albergaban los grandes núcle…
Political Participation and Democracy in the Information Age: Effects of ICT-Based Communication Forms between the Authorities and the Citizens on Tr…
2009
Bidrag på konferanse: The Third International Conference on Digital Society ICDS 2009 1-7 February 2009 Cancun, Mexico The main trends concerning the traditional channels of participation are reduced voting turnout, reduced participation in political parties, stable participation in associations and increased citizen contact. The influence of ICT based form of communication on the relations between the authorities and the citizens are heavily influenced by the role of the citizens designed by the authorities. If the citizens are treated as customers the authorities are pursuing a consultative model focusing on creating an effective administration. The flow of information is uni linear; howe…
Targeting Young Voters in a Political Campaign: Empirical Insights into an Interactive Digital Marketing Campaign in the 2007 Finnish General Election
2010
At general elections across Europe, turnout among young people tends to be significantly lower than among older voters. Therefore, this paper examines a digital marketing campaign that was targeted at young voters in the 2007 Finnish general election. More specifically, this paper aims to provide insights into the creative development process of a political marketing campaign and the nature of the client-agency relationship in political campaigns. The methodology adopted in this paper consisted of in-depth interviews with key informants involved in the campaign planning and implementation. The results provide new empirical insights into the challenges that political campaigner may face when…
Elections, Referendums and Parties
2015
By the end of 2014, the Baltic states had held a total of 19 parliamentary, 19 municipal and 3 cycles of European Parliament elections. Lithuania, which elects its president via a national popular vote, had additionally held six presidential polls. Another 23 referendums have been held since August 1991. The rigidity of the Lithuanian and Latvian electoral and judicial institutions have been tested by the 2004 impeachment of Lithuanian president, Rolandas Paksas, and the subsequent early presidential election, as well as a referendum on the recall of Latvia’s parliament in the summer of 2011 and the following early election. Estonia is recognised as an electoral innovator, being the first s…
Spanish electoral archive. SEA database
2021
This paper introduces the SEA database (acronym for Spanish Electoral Archive). SEA brings together the most complete public repository available to date on Spanish election outcomes. SEA holds all the results recorded from the electoral processes of General (1979–2019), Regional (1989–2021), Local (1979–2019) and European Parliamentary (1987–2019) elections held in Spain since the restoration of democracy in the late 70 s, in addition to other data sets with electoral content. The data are offered for free and is presented in a homogeneous and friendly format. Most of the databases are available for download with data from various electoral levels, including from the ballot box level. This…
European Issues, but National Campaigning of German Parties
2021
Germany is a political and economic heavyweight in the European Union and political issues that demand for European solutions rather than national policies, like migration or climate change, gained importance on the German public agenda in recent years. Nonetheless, EP elections regularly have the status of second-order elections when it comes to campaigning efforts as well as voter turnout. In 2019, the election turnout was extraordinarily high, and as this chapter shows, German parties focused on political issues mostly addressing the EU level. Implementing successful Facebook campaigns by initiating user engagement and emphasising issues ‘owned’ by their parties, the Greens and the right…