Enfranchising non-citizens: What drives natives’ willingness to share power?

Strangers and Foreigners: Trust and Attitudes Toward Citizenship

“…Based on the same Afrobarometer data we use, Zhou (2018) shows how attitudes toward citizenship acquisition and trust are jointly affected by the presence of refugees. Others have looked at the relationship between immigration and natives' voting behavior (e.g., Voigtlander and Voth, 2012;Barone at al., 2016;Halla, Wagner, and Zweimuller, 2017;Dustmann, Vasiljeva, and Piil Damm, 2019;Tabellini, 2020) and at the political economy of enfranchisement of ethnic and racial minorities (e.g., Alesina, Glaeser, and Sacerdote, 2001;Cascio and Washington, 2014;Bertocchi and Dimico, 2017;Koukal, Schafer, and Eichenberger, 2021). Furthermore, by extending it to the issue of citizenship, we also contribute to the interdisciplinary literature on the effect of intergroup contact on attitudes, that builds on Allport (1954) and includes Bursztyn et al (2021) among recent contributions.…”

Non-citizen voting rights and political participation of citizens: evidence from Switzerland

“…Thus, we argue that these concerns underpin the potential of such counterbalancing voting behaviour despite the low turnout of immigrant populations (Bird et al, 2011;Ruedin, 2018). This implies that an increase in turnout among citizens as a reaction to NCV legislation may occur (Stutzer and Slotwinski, 2020;Koukal et al, 2021), even though the actual numbers of non-citizens who eventually make use of these new political rights are low and consist of a heterogeneous set of preferences (Ruedin, 2018).…”

“…One such local electoral institution that has become increasingly common in democratic countries is local NCV rights (Earnest, 2015;Stutzer and Slotwinski, 2020;Kayran and Erdilmen, 2021;Koukal et al, 2021). While earlier studies on non-citizen enfranchisement policies have added significantly to what we know about the timing and conditions of NCV rights, there is relatively scant attention paid to the political consequences of such electoral rules.…”

“…The core premise of our theoretical framework is that where voting rights are extended to nonnaturalised immigrants, turnout rates amongst all citizenswith or without immigration backgroundsare expected to be higher. Based on extant studies, this could be explained by a perceived increase in competition for political influence (Stutzer and Slotwinski, 2020;Koukal et al, 2021) or could be the result of advanced social engagement due to the expansion of political rights (Förster, 2008;Stadlmair, 2020). Furthermore, we also suggest that the positive effects of noncitizen enfranchisement on political participation will be more prominent for citizens with immigration backgrounds than native citizens since their connection to the immigrant representation makes them more sensitive to the debates around NCV and increases the salience of the matter of immigrant political participation.…”

“…While both mechanisms can occur simultaneously within host democracies, they are, arguably, mutually exclusive at the individual level as they are based on two distinct logics of self-interested democratic grievances and group or individual based enhancement of political socialisation. Starting with the former, it is possible to consider non-citizen enfranchisement as equitable to an increase in the overall voter supply (Stutzer and Slotwinski, 2020;Koukal et al, 2021). Thus, such a rise in participation in non-citizen enfranchised areas can be seen as citizens' attempt to counterbalance the rising voter supply from non-citizens.…”