Electoral Participation

Abstract

The aggregation of electoral preferences begins with the act of voting; the decision whether or not to vote thus makes a logical starting point for the analysis of the impact of electoral institutions on political outcomes. Before delving into the empirical evaluation of electoral participation, it is worthwhile pausing to consider the normative interpretation of aggregate voting levels. Electoral participation is generally understood as being relevant to the study of democracy and democratization for two principal reasons. First, voting is often seen as an indicator of the strength of democracy in that it provides a gauge of the extent to which the citizenry is actively involved in representative politics. In this sense electoral participation may be seen as one of the most readily measurable indices of the propensity of citizens to include themselves in the political life. If democracy is a matter of rule of the people, the more people who participate in a political system, the more democratic it may be held to be (provided that participation has a meaningful impact on democratic outcomes). In this sense a high level of mass participation can be seen as a necessary — if not sufficient — condition for full democracy. Even if democracy is understood, following Schumpeter, only in terms of holding rulers to account, mass participation by different groups in society can be seen as a necessary check on the exercise of power.