Dans un article pour The Conversation, le professeur André Blais et son collègue Filip Kostelka expliquent pourquoi le taux de participation électorale dans les démocraties est en déclin depuis les années 1960. Ils identifient deux causes majeures : un changement générationnel lié au développement économique, et l’augmentation du nombre d’institutions.
EXTRAIT : The other main cause, responsible for 21% of the decline, is the rise in the number of elective institutions. When elections are more frequent, voter fatigue sets in and people’s interest in taking part slides. In Europe, the number of elective institutions increased by 34% since the 1960s. This was driven by European integration, state decentralisation, the frequent use of direct democracy, and institutional reforms such as the introduction of directly elected presidents. If voters are asked to vote nearly twice a year, like in France, some of them will get fed up and not bother.