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Replication Data for: Is Compulsory Voting a Solution to Low and Declining Turnout? Cross-National Evidence Since 1945

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: Is Compulsory Voting a Solution to Low and Declining Turnout? Cross-National Evidence Since 1945
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/7OB0YJ
 
Creator Kostelka, Filip
Singh, Shane
Blais, André
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Despite the substantial body of research on compulsory voting’s (CV) relationship with turnout, much remains unknown about the role of different types of CV rules, their enforcement, and their ability to prevent the secular turnout decline observed around the world. Moreover, existing studies that leverage changes to compulsory voting laws are limited to a single country. We assemble rich new data on voter turnout and electoral legislation that, we believe, provide the most accurate and extensive cross-national measure of CV to date. We test three theoretically-derived hypotheses: that CV enforcement matters for participation; that enforcement’s effect is conditioned by state capacity; and that, only when CV is enforced, will it mitigate voter turnout’s post-1970 tendency to decline. We find support for each. We also find that the nature of sanctions for non-voting is irrelevant for participation.
 
Subject Social Sciences
Voter Turnout
Compulsory Voting
State Capacity
 
Contributor Kostelka, Filip