The effect of socioeconomic factors on voter turnout in Finland: A register‐based study of 2.9 million voters

Abstract

Abstract. We examine the association of four socioeconomic factors with turnout in Finland in three age groups. The analyses are based on individual‐level register data from electoral wards from the parliamentary elections of 1999 linked to population registration data on personal characteristics covering the whole 25 to 69 year‐old Finnish electorate. The results show that income and housing tenure are more important determinants of turnout among older voters than among younger voters, whereas education has a dominant role in determining young people's turnout. Moreover, class has maintained its discriminatory power in determining turnout in all age groups even though working‐class under‐representation in participation can be partly attributable to previously obtained educational attainment. Furthermore, the lower turnout of younger voters remains unexplained even if socioeconomic factors are held constant. Lower turnout among lower social classes and among the young will affect the legitimacy of the prevalent model of party democracy.

Generations and Socialization into Electoral Participation in Finland

“…In Model 1, sex and three socioeconomic variables (education, social class and income) have been adjusted. It shows a similar result to a previous study (see Martikainen et al 2005): compared to the reference group of the youngest generation, clear differences between generations can be detected, even though the effect of generation is attenuated 21 percent among the generation of the suburban after adjusting for socioeconomic variables 6 . The fact that the odds ratios for the generation of transformation and generation of war and reconstruction are larger than before the adjustment emphasizes the point stated earlier: the difference in turnout between the youngest and the eldest generations would be greater if there were no socioeconomic differences between them, given that the youngest generation is better educated (see Martikainen et al 2005, 17).…”

“…Although the young age cohorts are better educated than their predecessors, overall turnout is declining. Moreover, it has been shown that even while holding socioeconomic factors such as education, class, income and housing tenure constant, the lower turnout of young voters remains unexplained (Martikainen et al 2005). As an individual's socioeconomic status usually rises with age, and those with a higher status are more likely to vote than those with a lower one, the independent effect of age to turnout suggests that the life cycle explanation is not sufficient on its own.…”

The return of censitary suffrage? The effects of automatic voter registration and voluntary voting in Chile

“…In the case of Finland, Martikainen, Martikainen, and Wass conclude that the effect of income level on turnout is weaker among young people and that education has a more significant effect in this age group. 9 In the case of Chile, Corvalán and Cox showed that there is an unusual level of class bias. 10 Before voting became voluntary, young people registered to vote in significantly smaller numbers than other age groups and, even more seriously, poor young people registered much less than their rich peers.…”

Ethnic Diversity and Political Participation: The Role of Individual Income

“…precinct c to precinct c between the two years, the difference u c − u c will be uncorrelated 17 The Fixed Effects identification strategy exploits time variation in turnout and in the main regressors of interest. In our sample, this reduces the number of observations to about 40000 individuals.…”