Abstentionism, Voting Advice Applications and Voting Activation

Bibliographic Data

ID13036627
AuthorsJavier Ramos Jiménez (0000-0002-5662-837X, Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Javier Padilla (0000-0003-4026-9795, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author), Enrique Chueca (King's College London)
Year2019
Volume10
Issue1
Pages55-85
Publication date2019-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueStatistics Politics and Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2151-7509 • E-ISSN: 2194-6299
PublisherDe Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/spp-2018-0006
OpenAlexW2950721031
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited38

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) have proliferated in the last decade as part of electoral campaigns in Europe. Several studies have linked the usage of the applications to an increase in voting intention, yet the literature on the factors that make people more likely to be influenced by VAAs is not really developed. This paper tries to contribute to this literature by addressing two key questions: first, how non-institutional forms of political participation influence abstentionism among VAA users and second, how VAA encourages voting intention among these politically engaged abstentionists (activation effect). We first examine (a) whether being engaged in non-institutional forms of participation increases the likelihood of a VAA user declaring him/herself to be a voter and (b) whether being engaged in non-institutional forms of political participation has an effect on the probability of becoming a “voter” after filling in the VAA questionnaire. Our results suggest that the VAA “activation effect” nexus exists and it affects a significant percentage of abstentionist. Those users that have participated in non-institutional forms of participation – such as demonstrations or online petitions – are more likely to declare being voters before filling in the VAA. Among the abstentionists, once they answered the set of 30 key questions, a considerable percent (between 14 and 22 percent depending on the threshold used) declared to have the intention to vote (activation effect). The prevailing profile of the activated user is a young man with tertiary education. The motivational reason for voting a party also matter in increasing the probability that an “activation effect” happens. The competency of the party, its ideology, the candidate presented by the party and the users’ self-interest are also good predictors of the “activation effect.”

Advice (programming · Nexus (standard · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Set (abstract data type · Voting · Voting behavior · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology

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