Voter Turnout and Political Rents

Abstract

Is the decline in voter turnout an indicator of a worse health of a representative democracy? We build a simple probabilistic-voting model with endogenous turnout to address this question. We …nd that a lower turnout caused by a higher cost of voting implies higher political rents. Contrarily, a lower turnout caused by a higher ideological mobility of voters or by a lower expressive bene…t of voting implies lower political rents. If voters have a civic-duty motive to vote which depends on the level of rents, multiple equilibria (a high-rents and a low-rents) can arise.

Costly voting, turnout, and candidate valence

“…This result is compatible with the view (Aldashev, 2015) that a decline in turnout might lead to the selection of less valent candidates. For ( > 2, though, the probability of electing the valent candidate increases with c. As c rises, the share of At ( ≥ 9, all those who turn out vote according to their valence signal, and (%) equals q.…”

“…In particular, within a framework where voters have private values and commonly shared values and vote in an instrumental way, Ghosal and Lockwood (2009) prove that a switch from private to common value voting might lead both to lower turnout and to better selection of agents, and Aldashev (2015) shows that lower turnout due to higher ideological mobility of voters actually reduces equilibrium rents by self-interested politicians.…”

Turnout, political preferences and information: Experimental evidence from Peru

“…In this paper, I provide evidence supporting the predictions of one of the models derived from the classic "calculus of voting" literature (Downs, 1957;Riker and Ordeshook 1968). 1 The empirical results from this paper are closely related to several strands of the literature on voter behavior and electoral institutions. First, I contribute to the growing literature on the determinants of voter turnout.…”

“…The results in Column (1) show that a decrease in the fine for abstention does not have a economically or statistically significant effect on the incidence of vote buying. Column (2) shows the effect on the amount of money received directly from a candidate or her representatives before the election.…”

“…First, I contribute to the growing literature on the determinants of voter turnout. 2 My paper combines an institutional change with experimental evidence from the field 1 Merlo (2006) and Martinelli (2007) provide excellent reviews of the theoretical models of turnout. The models available in the literature can be classified as those that emphasize the probability of being pivotal as the main motivation to vote (Borgers, 2004;Ledyard, 1984;Palfrey and Rosenthal, 1985); those that argue that citizens are driven to the polls to fulfill their civic duty and do the right thing (Harsanyi, 1980;Feddersen and Sandroni, 2006;Feddersen, Gailmard, andSandroni, 2009, Coate andConlin, 2004); and uncertainty voter models, which endogenize a component of the cost of voting (Deagan, 2006;Deagan and Merlo, 2009, Feddersen and Pesendorfer, 1996, 1999Matsusaka, 1995).…”