Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T00:50:53.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Voter Equalization and Turnout Bias After Electoral Reform: Evidence from Chile’s Voluntary Voting Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2019

Daniel Brieba Open the ORCID record for Daniel Brieba [Opens in a new window]  and
Kenneth Bunker Open the ORCID record for Kenneth Bunker [Opens in a new window]
Daniel Brieba*
Affiliation:
Daniel Brieba is an assistant professor at the Escuela de Gobierno, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez.
Kenneth Bunker*
Affiliation:
Kenneth Bunker is a visiting professor in the Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e Politiche, Università degli Studi di Milano.
*
[email protected].
[email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It has normally been argued that because compulsory voting systems present higher turnout rates relative to voluntary voting systems, they do not generate as many biases between different groups of voters. This article qualifies that view. It argues that in cases in which compulsory voting does not ensure near-universal participation, there is no certainty that switching to voluntary voting will increase inequalities. This issue is examined by looking at Chile, a democracy that moved from compulsory voting to voluntary voting in 2012. The research finds that while the reform generated class bias in urban districts, it also substantially reduced age bias and, in national elections, equalized participation between small and large districts. The conclusion is that abandoning compulsory voting does not necessarily increase turnout biases, since much depends on the structure of preexisting biases and how these are conditioned by particular electoral institutions.

Keywords

compulsory votingChileclass biaselectoral reformturnout bias
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 61 , Issue 4 , November 2019 , pp. 23 - 46
Copyright
© University of Miami 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, Daron, Autor, David H., and Lyle, David. 2004. Women, War, and Wages: The Effect of Female Labor Supply on the Wage Structure at Midcentury. Journal of Political Economy 112, 3: 497–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avery, James M. 2015. Does Who Votes Matter? Income Bias in Voter Turnout and Economic Inequality in the American States from 1980 to 2010. Political Behavior 37: 955–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bargsted, Matías, Valenzuela, Samuel J., De la Cerda, Nicolás, and Mackenna, Bernardo. 2015. Participación ciudadana en las elecciones municipales 2012: diagnóstico y propuestas en torno al sistema de voto voluntario. In UNDP 2015. 27–58.Google Scholar
Barnes, Tiffany D., and Rangel, Gabriela. 2014. Election Law Reform in Chile: The Implementation of Automatic Registration and Voluntary Voting. Election Law Journal 13, 4: 570–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, Tiffany D., and Rangel, Gabriela. 2018. Subnational Patterns of Participation: Compulsory Voting and the Conditional Impact of Institutional Design. Political Research Quarterly 71, 4: 826–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, Larry. 2008. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bartle, John, Birch, Sarah, and Skirmuntt, Mariana. 2017. The Local Roots of the Participation Gap: Inequality and Voter Turnout. Electoral Studies 48: 30–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bechtel, Michael M., Hangartner, Dominik, and Schmid, Lukas. 2016. Does Compulsory Voting Increase Support for Leftist Policy? American Journal of Political Science 60, 3: 752–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berinsky, Adam J. 2005. The Perverse Consequences of Electoral Reform in the United States. American Politics Research 33, 4: 471–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brieba, Daniel. 2015. Análisis de los resultados de las elecciones municipales 2012. In UNDP 2015. 59–78.Google Scholar
Bunker, Kenneth. 2018. La elección de 2017 y el fraccionamiento del sistema de partidos en Chile. Revista Chilena de Derecho y Ciencia Política 9, 2: 204–29.Google Scholar
Bunker, Kenneth, and Navia, Patricio. 2015. Incumbency Advantage and Tenure Length in the Chilean Chamber of Deputies. Revista de Ciencia Política 35, 2: 251–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cancela, João, and Geys, Benny. 2016. Explaining Voter Turnout: A Meta-Analysis of National and Subnational Elections. Electoral Studies 42: 264–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, John M., and Horiuchi, Yusaku. 2017. Compulsory Voting and Income Inequality: Evidence for Lijphart’s Proposition from Venezuela. Latin American Politics and Society 59, 2: 122–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlin, Ryan E. 2006. The Decline of Citizen Participation in Electoral Politics in Post-Authoritarian Chile. Democratization 13, 4: 632–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cepaluni, Gabriel, and Daniel Hidalgo, F. 2016. Compulsory Voting Can Increase Political Inequality: Evidence from Brazil. Political Analysis 24, 2: 273–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Contreras, Gonzalo, and Morales, Mauricio. 2015. El sesgo de clase existió y existe. Análisis de la participación electoral en Chile (municipales 2012 y presidenciales 2013). In UNDP 2015. 79–114.Google Scholar
Contreras, Gonzalo, and Navia, Patricio. 2013. Diferencias generacionales en la participación electoral en Chile, 1988–2010. Revista de Ciencia Política 33, 2: 419–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Contreras, Gonzalo, Joignant, Alfredo, and Morales, Mauricio. 2016. The Return of Censitary Suffrage? The Effects of Automatic Voter Registration and Voluntary Voting in Chile. Democratization 23, 3: 520–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corvalán, Alejandro, and Cox, Paulo. 2013. Class-Biased Electoral Participation: The Youth Vote in Chile. Latin American Politics and Society 55, 3: 47–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Loreto, and González, Ricardo. 2016. Cambios en la participación electoral tras la inscripción automática y el voto voluntario. Debates de Política Pública CEP 14: 1–29. https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160505/asocfile/20160505172224/dpp_014_marzo2016_lcox_rgonzalez.pdf. Accessed May 27, 2019.Google Scholar
Durston, John W. 2005. El clientelismo político en el campo chileno (segunda parte): la democracia cuestionada. Revista de Ciencias Sociales 2, 2: 1–22.Google Scholar
Ellis, Cristopher R., Ura, Joseph Daniel, and Ashley-Robinson, Jenna. 2006. The Dynamic Consequences of Nonvoting in American National Elections. Political Research Quarterly 59, 2: 227–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fornos, Carolina A., Power, Timothy J., and Garand, James C.. 2004. Explaining Voter Turnout in Latin America, 1980 to 2000. Comparative Political Studies 37, 8: 909–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, Anthony. 2013. Electoral and Policy Consequences of Voter Turnout: Evidence from Compulsory Voting in Australia. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 8, 2: 159–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franko, William W., Kelly, Nathan J., and Witko, Cristopher. 2016. Class Bias in Voter Turnout, Representation, and Income Inequality. Perspectives on Politics 14, 2: 351–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fujiwara, Thomas. 2015. Voting Technology, Political Responsiveness, and Infant Health: Evidence from Brazil. Econometrica 83, 2: 423–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallego, Aina. 2010. Understanding Unequal Turnout: Education and Voting in Comparative Perspective. Electoral Studies 29, 2: 239–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gattini, César, Chávez, Claudia, and Albers, Daniela. 2014. Comunas de Chile, según el nivel socioeconómico, de salud y de desarrollo humano. Revisión 2013. Documento de Serie Técnica del Observatorio Chileno de Salud Pública 2014/3. http://ochisap.cl/images/ComunasChile.pdf. Accessed May 27, 2019.Google Scholar
Geys, Benny. 2006. Explaining Voter Turnout: A Review of Aggregate-Level Research. Electoral Studies 25, 4: 637–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilens, Martin, and Page, Benjamin I.. 2014. Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens. Perspectives on Politics 12, 3: 564–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haime, Agustina. 2017. What Explains Voter Turnout in Latin America? A Test of the Effect of Citizen Attitudes Towards the Electoral Process. Revista de Ciencia Política 37, 1: 69–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huneeus, Carlos. 2006. La necesidad de la reforma electoral. In La reforma al sistema binominal en Chile: una contribución al debate. Santiago: Catalonia. 13–44.Google Scholar
Huneeus, Cristóbal, Lagos, Marta, and Díaz, Antonio. 2015. Los dos Chiles. Controversias del voto voluntario e inscripción automática. Los que no votaron y quienes votaron por ellos. Santiago: Catalonia.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1997. Unequal Participation: Democracy’s Unresolved Dilemma. Presidential address, American Political Science Association, 1996. American Political Science Review 91, 1: 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luna, Juan Pablo, and Mardones, Rodrigo, eds. 2017. La columna vertebral fracturada. Revisitando intermediarios políticos en Chile. Santiago: RIL Editores.Google Scholar
Lutz, Georg, and Marsh, Michael. 2007. Introduction: Consequences of Low Turnout. Electoral Studies 26, 3: 539–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackenna, Bernardo. 2015. Composición del electorado en elecciones con voto obligatorio y voluntario: un estudio cuasi-experimental de la participación electoral en Chile. Revista Latinoamericana de Opinión Pública 5, 1: 49–97.Google Scholar
Meltzer, Allan H., and Richard, Scott F.. 1981. A Rational Theory of the Size of Government. Journal of Political Economy 89, 5: 914–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Navia, Patricio. 2004. Participación electoral en Chile, 1988–2001. Revista de Ciencia Política 24, 1: 81–103.Google Scholar
Power, Timothy J. 2009. Compulsory for Whom? Mandatory Voting and Electoral Participation in Brazil, 1986–2006. Journal of Politics in Latin America 1, 1: 97–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramírez, Jorge. 2015. Municipales 2012. Indagando en la abstención electoral. In UNDP 2015. 143–61.Google Scholar
Remmer, Karen. 2010. Political Scale and Electoral Turnout: Evidence from the Less Industrialized World. Comparative Political Studies 43, 3: 275–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smets, Kaat, and Van Ham, Carolien. 2013. The Embarrassment of Riches? A Meta-Analysis of Individual-level Research on Voter Turnout. Electoral Studies 32, 2: 344–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stockemer, Daniel. 2017. What Affects Voter Turnout? A Review Article/Meta-Analysis of Aggregate Research. Government and Opposition 52, 4: 698–722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toro, Sergio. 2008. De lo épico a lo cotidiano: jóvenes y generaciones políticas en Chile. Revista de Ciencia Política 28, 2: 143–60.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 2015. Condicionantes de la participación electoral en Chile. Santiago: UNDP. ISBN 978-956-7469-60-4. http://www.cl.undp.org/content/chile/es/home/library/democratic_governance/condicionantes-de-la-participacion-electoral-en-chileGoogle Scholar