The Motivation to Vote
Explaining Electoral Participation
- Publisher
- UBC Press
- Initial publish date
- Feb 2020
- Category
- Elections, Democracy, History & Theory
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780774862707
- Publish Date
- Feb 2020
- List Price
- $34.99
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780774862677
- Publish Date
- Feb 2020
- List Price
- $34.95
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Where to buy it
Description
Elections are at the heart of our democracy. Understanding citizens’ decisions to vote or to abstain in elections is crucial, especially when turnout in so many democracies is declining.
In The Motivation to Vote, André Blais and Jean-François Daoust provide an original and elegant model that explains why people vote. They argue that the decision to vote or abstain hinges on four factors: political interest, sense of civic duty, perceived importance of the election, and ease of voting. Their findings are strongly supported by empirical evidence from elections in five countries.
The authors also test alternative explanations of voter turnout by looking at contextual factors and the role of habit, but find little evidence to support these hypotheses. This analysis is compelling and further demonstrates the power of their model to provide a provocative and parsimonious explanation of voter turnout in elections.
About the authors
Andr� Blais is Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies at the Universit� de Montr�al.