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The Centre on Social Movement Studies

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Life beyond the ballot box: the political participation and non-participation of electoral abstainers

Martín Portos, Lorenzo Bosi, Lorenzo Zamponi

Drawing on electoral participation and social movement studies, we develop a typology of abstainers on the basis of their forms of non-electoral participation, and explore the determinants that drive belonging to each of these sub-groups. Although there is a positive correlation between electoral turnout and non-electoral participation, we find that there is a subset of abstainers who decide not to cast a vote but take part in non-electoral political activities.

Type: Journal Article
Year: 2020

Drawing on electoral participation and social movement studies, we develop a typologyof abstainers on the basis of their forms of non-electoral participation, and explore thedeterminants that drive belonging to each of these sub-groups. Although there is a positive correlation between electoral turnout and non-electoral participation, throughapplying latent class analyses and regressions we find that there is a subset ofabstainers who decide not to cast a vote but take part in non-electoral political activities. These ‘alternative voicers’ are critical of the institutional system and do not feelrepresented by it, but they are politically involved. Based on their patterns of non-electoral participation, we propose a more nuanced typology of alternative voicers (e-activists, super-activists, and consumerists) and explore their drivers relative to otherabstainers. We use data from the original LIVEWHAT survey conducted in 2015 acrossnine European countries (N = 18,367).

Portos, M., Bosi, L. and Zamponi, L. (2020) Life beyond the ballot box: the political participation and non-participation of electoral abstainers. European Societies 22(2), pp.231-265

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616696.2019.1610785

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