Week 10: Elections And Voting Behaviour Flashcards
What is the general trend of voter turnout over time since the 1980s? Where is Canada?
•Voter turnout started to decline in the 1980s
•Lower at the province level, and far lower for municipal elections
•Canada, compared to other democracies, has middling levels of voter turnout
List the individual level factors that explain variations between individuals in their turnout (4)
- Demographics
- Socio-economic status (SES)
- Efficacy
- Political interest
What are some dominant predictors of an individual’s propensity to vote based on demographics and socioeconomic status, and what is the ONE BIG CAVEAT
- Older voters = higher turnout
- Whites = higher turnout
- Wealthier citizens = higher turnout
- More educated = higher turnout
One big caveat. Young people are just as likely to engage in other forms of political participation like:
•Signing a petition
•Contacting a politician
•Attending a protest
They are also more likely to express themselves politically in online spaces
What is the difference between internal and external efficacy
- Internal efficacy: belief that one has the capacity to meaningfully participate in the political system
- External efficacy: belief that the political system is responsive to people like oneself
What is political interest as an individual level factor?
- More Interest = more participation
- Why? Social-psychological benefits (esteem, belonging), lower cognitive costs
- Age gap is explained in large part by a lack of political interest among younger generations and their lower SES status
What are context level factors for voter turnout? Define, and list 4 examples
Context-level factors explain why average turnout may vary across countries, provinces, or ridings
•Examples
➢Electoral systems (PR = higher turnout)
➢Polling station wait times/distances
➢Voting restrictions
➢Voter registration
What are time varying factors for voter turnout? Define and list 4 examples.
•Some factors may vary over time in ways that have led to declining turnout
Examples:
➢Generation change and norms
➢Declining efficacy and institutional trust
➢Declining social trust and volunteerism
➢Electoral competitiveness
What is the funnel of Causality?
- Demographics (gender, race, ethnicity, age)
- Socioeconomic status (income, education)
- Partisanship and ideology
- Issue positions and economic evaluations
- Leader evaluations
- Issue positions and economic evaluations
- Partisanship and ideology
- Socioeconomic status (income, education)
Leads to voter choice
What are the strong effects of social groups on vote choice? (3)
- Westerners more Conservative, Quebecois less so
- Younger voters less likely to support and vote for the Conservatives, more supportive of NDP
- Religious people more likely to support Conservatives; non-religious the NDP
What are the weak effects of social groups on vote choice (4)
- Income
- Education
- Small gender gap (women less likely to support Conservatives)
- Visible minorities and immigrants historically have supported Liberals over all others, but this has varied considerably (e.g., 2011 election)
Impact of ideology and values? Define ideology, how they are typically characterized and where Canada stands
- Ideology: “An interrelated set of attitudes and policy beliefs about the proper goals of society and how they should be achieved”
- Typically characterized along a single dimension from left (liberal/progressive) to right (conservative)
- Most Canadians do not have coherent ideological beliefs and are broadly centrist in orientation
Additional info:
•Notions of left-right often broken down by levels of economic or social liberalism/conservatism
•Conservatives and Liberals/NDP increasingly divided on both dimensions
•In Quebec left-right not always as relevant as federalist/nationalist/separatist divide
What is partisan identification?
Partisan identity or partisan identification: “a person’s psychological attachment (or lack thereof) to a political party”
What is the running tally theory
Party attachments are formed with a running tally where citizens form attachments to parties based on their leaders and policy positions
•Party identification doesn’t cause public opinion or vote choice
What is social identity theory?
We become attached to parties because their supporters and officials are “people like us”
•These attachments to parties take on a life of their own and actively bias our perceptions of the world around us
What is economic voting? Give an example. (Hint: define retrospective and sociotropic voting)
When people vote based on the economy
- This is typically done retrospectively – people judge past performance
- It is also done sociotropically– they judge based on national conditions rather than their own pocketbook
- Caveat: a lot of people evaluate the economy based on their partisanship
