Compelled Voters and Accountability in Australia

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-11-2020

Publication Title

Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties

First page number:

1

Last page number:

21

Abstract

Does compulsory voting (CV) result in divergent voting paths? Using the heterogeneous attribution thesis, we test whether compelled voters are less likely to rely on egotropic perceptions of the economy than voluntary voters, depressing the impact of economic voting. Our results show that compelled voters refrain from accurately relying on egotropic perceptions of the economy. Our findings question whether CV does in fact increase accountability to the electorate. While many advocates of CV believe it empowers low SES voters, our findings suggest that even if this is the case, it does so at the expense of holding incumbents accountable for poor economic performance.

Keywords

Economic voting; Compulsory voting; Heterogenous attribution theory

Disciplines

Comparative Politics | Election Law | Ethics and Political Philosophy | Politics and Social Change

Language

English

UNLV article access

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