Compulsory Voting
Type
applied research project
Start Date
February 1, 2013
End Date
January 31, 2015
Status
ongoing
Keywords
Compulsory Voting
Political Economy
Causal Inference
Political Behavior
Description
The (re-)introduction of compulsory voting laws and their abolishment has been a frequently debated political issue in Switzerland and many other democratic countries. The debates over compulsory voting laws expose, at least to some degree, often a societal fault line. On the one hand, some advocacy groups and policymakers support a general introduction of compulsory voting laws. Compulsory voting is seen as a remedy against low voter turnout, especially among the low-skilled and low-educated, and as a device to encourage political participation and collective action in general. On the other hand, opponents of compulsory voting laws interpret the right to vote to also include the right not to vote and argue that compulsory voting is a paternalistic violation of individual liberty. Given the decreasing levels in turnout, the debates about compulsory voting laws are likely to continue to grow in the years ahead. In addition to the normative debate surrounding compulsory voting, there is also a positive literature discussing its political consequences. One of the key debates over compulsory voting involves its effects on overall turnout and how these additional voters have different policy preferences than the prior constituency (Tingsten 1937, Lijphart 1997) which subsequently leads to more redistribution, higher spending for welfare and education, and higher public debts and tax rates. To date, empirical research on the causal effects of compulsory voting has made limited progress, in large part due to methodological impediments. Existing studies have mostly relied on crude, cross-national comparisons. By exploiting a natural experiment, namely the introduction and subsequent abolishment of compulsory voting laws in the canton of Thurgau between 1904 and 1964 , we identify the causal effects of compulsory voting on turnout, welfare spending, tax rates, and public debts. We will collect a new, fine-grained database covering the above outcomes and their relevant predictors for all Swiss cantons from 1890-2000, to overcome the methodological problems. Our project will make an important contribution to the understanding of the effects of political participation and compulsory voting on turnout and redistribution. Our study is theoretically significant, because our newly collected dataset will for the first time allow us to document and analyze the effects of compulsory voting using a credible, sub-national design. Our pilot results indicate that compulsory voting almost doubles turnout in federal election. Collecting additional canton- and municipal-level data across a long time-period is critical to pin down the potentially heterogenous effects of compulsory voting. Our nuanced cross-cantonal comparisons will contribute to the core debates in the literature about the effects of compulsory voting on turnout, political collective action, redistribution, welfare spending, taxes, and public debts. Finally, our project is also important from a policy perspective. Past and present compulsory voting laws are highly relevant policy issues in Switzerland and will continue to gain importance in the light of decreasing levels of political participation. But despite these frequent and at times heated debates, there exists almost no systematic empirical evidence that could inform these normative policy discussions. Systematic data is absent even for basic facts, such as the direct effects of compulsory voting on turnout as well as its indirect effects on levels of redistribution, tax rates and public debts. Our study will fill this void by collecting critical evidence and conducting a comprehensive analysis of the effects of compulsory voting over the last 110 years. We think it is imperative to conduct this study now while the historical records are still available.
Member contributor(s)
Funder
Topic(s)
-
Method(s)
-
Range
HSG Internal
Range (De)
HSG Intern
Eprints ID
234877