Voter turnout in electoral democracies declined by nearly ten percentage points between the 1960s and 2010s. The reasons for this global decline are yet unclear. This article draws on the findings from micro-level studies and theorizes two explanations: generational change and a rise in the number of elective institutions. The empirical section tests these hypotheses along with other explanations proposed in the literature (shifts in party/candidate competition, voting age reforms, weakening group mobilization, economic globalization). We conduct two analyses. The first analysis employs an original data set covering all post-1945 democratic national elections. The second studies individual-level data from the four waves of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. The results strongly support the generational change and elective institutions hypotheses, which account for most of the decline. These findings have important implications for a better understanding of the current transformations of representative democracy and the challenges it faces.

Organisé par la Chaire de recherche en études électorales et la Chaire de recherche du Canada en démocratie électorale.

Mardi 11 juin, 12h-13h, C-4145