Does participation follow the same logic across different types of elections
Determinants of voter turnout in national and European Parliament elections (1975-2024)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6450255 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Filip Kostelka (0000-0003-0591-5499, corresponding author), André Blais (0000-0003-4292-110X, Université de Montréal) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 63-2 |
| Pages | 25-45 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Revue européenne des sciences sociales (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0048-8046 • E-ISSN: 1663-4446 |
| Publisher | Librairie Droz (PUBLISHER • CH) |
| DOI | 10.4000/1596f |
| OpenAlex | W4416878351 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 50 |
Do political and institutional factors influence voter turnout in the same way in national and European Parliament (EP) elections? We hypothesise that these factors exert broadly similar but asymmetrical effects, due to differing baseline turnout levels. For the purposes of this study, we conducted time-series cross-sectional analyses of an original dataset covering 508 national lower house and EP elections held in European Union member states between 1975 and 2024. Our independent variables include election frequency, based on data from 2,487 major elections and referendums held in these countries. The results support our hypotheses. Political and institutional factors exert similar effects in both election types, but their magnitude varies as hypothesised. Factors that increase participation show stronger effects in EP elections, while those that reduce turnout are more pronounced in national contests. As a secondary finding, we show that these factors account neither for the long-term turnout gap between EP and national elections nor for its recent decline
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |