Where is the class bias attenuation? The consequences of adopting compulsory voting in Austria-Hungary in 1907

Abstract

Adopting compulsory voting (CV) legislation is expected to produce near-universal turnout, which in turn is assumed to iron out class-based differences in political influence and representation. The article traces the historical process generating the sequential adoption of CV in 8 of the 17 Cisleithanian crownlands of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1907 and 1911, and leverages a difference-in-differences (DiD) method to estimate its causal effect on turnout and voting patterns in elections to the Imperial Council. Exploiting unique data on the turnout of citizens based on their occupational categories, it further examines whether the adoption of CV attenuated class bias in turnout. Despite a large boost to turnout, CV neither increased support for parties representing the working classes, nor attenuated the class bias in turnout.

Nationalism, Class, and Status: How Nationalists Use Policy Offers and Group Appeals to Attract a New Electorate

“…First, some provinces used mandatory voting, which would have affected the sociological profile of participating voters there. Specifically, the Christian Social Party pushed strongly for and the Social Democrats against mandatory voting, under the shared expectation that the industrial proletariat was already highly mobilized, and that it therefore would increase the relative share of rural, conservative, agrarian, and middle-class voters within the electorate (Kouba, 2021, p. 5–6). Parties competing primarily in those provinces might have adjusted their campaign strategies accordingly.…”