<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Turnout decline in former communist countries has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. In this paper, I re-test some of the previous hypotheses on new data and I propose a new hypothesis that considers the impact of external migration. Using multivariate regression models on a dataset of 272 presidential and parliamentary elections held in 30 post-communist countries between 1989 and 2012, I have found strong support for the “migration hypothesis”: other things being equal, an increase of migration rate by 1 percentage point reduces voter turnout by around 0.4 percentage points. Most of the previous hypotheses related to causes of turnout decline are supported too.</p></abstract>

Turnout decline in former communist countries has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. In this paper, I re-test some of the previous hypotheses on new data and I propose a new hypothesis that considers the impact of external migration. Using multivariate regression models on a dataset of 272 presidential and parliamentary elections held in 30 post-communist countries between 1989 and 2012, I have found strong support for the “migration hypothesis”: other things being equal, an increase of migration rate by 1 percentage point reduces voter turnout by around 0.4 percentage points. Most of the previous hypotheses related to causes of turnout decline are supported too.

Explaining Turnout Decline in Post-Communist Countries: The Impact of Migration

Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Sociologia

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Explaining Turnout Decline in Post-Communist Countries: The Impact of Migration"}

Turnout decline in former communist countries has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. In this paper, I re-test some of the previous hypotheses on...

Explaining Turnout Decline in Post-Communist Countries: The Impact of Migration

Published Online: Feb 10, 2018

Page range: 29 - 60

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/subbs-2017-0010

Keywords
voter turnout, turnout decline, migration, post-communist countries

© 2017 Mircea Comşa, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Explaining Turnout Decline in Post-Communist Countries: The Impact of Migration

Published Online: Feb 10, 2018

Page range: 29 - 60

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/subbs-2017-0010

Keywordsvoter turnout, turnout decline, migration, post-communist countries

© 2017 Mircea Comşa, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
voter turnout, turnout decline, migration, post-communist countries