Political institutions, voter turnout, and policy outcomes

Abstract

This paper tests whether constitutions directly affect economic outcomes. By introducing citizens' political participation as the driving force connecting institutions to policy outcomes, we empirically show that voter turnout is the channel through which forms of government affect economic policies. We provide evidence of the existence of two relationships. First, presidential regimes appear to be associated with lower voter participation in national elections. Second, higher voter participation induces an increase in government expenditure, total revenues, welfare state spending, and budget deficit. We conclude that forms of government affect policy outcomes only through voter turnout. Hig h lig h t s Relat io n sh ip b et w een f o r m s o f g o ver n m en t an d elect o r al p ar t icip at io n . Lo w er p ar t icip at io n in p r esid en t ial r eg im es. Hig h er t ur n o u t r at es ar e asso ciat ed t o lar g er g o ver n m en t sp en d in g , h ig h er g o ver n m en t , r even u es, m o r e g en er o us w elf ar e st at e an d lar g er b u d g et d ef icit s. Fo r m s o f g o ver n m en t in f lu en ce p o licies t h r o u g h vo t er p ar t icip at io n at g en er al elect io n s

‘Don’t play if you can’t win’: does economic inequality undermine political equality?

“…However, they do not include any institutional variables that might account for different turnout rates across countries. In a more encompassing cross-national study, Fumagalli and Narciso (2012) analyze 85 countries for the 1990s with institutional, regional, and economic control variables.…”

Does education increase political participation? Evidence from Indonesia

“…3 But, they may also positively correlate if education captures the effects of parental characteristics, socio-economic status, intelligence, and personal preferences-if some observed-and unobserved 1 In the U.S., for example, the relationship that voter turnout increases in education holds for white or black Americans, local or national elections, and self-reported or public recoded votes (see Sondheimer and Green (2010) and the papers cited herein). 2 In the literature on voter turnout, education is considered one of the determinants (see, for example, Fumagalli and Narciso (2012)). See Persson (2015) for a review of the literature.…”

Inequality and Participative Democracy: A Self‐Reinforcing Mechanism

“…The specification of the estimated regression equation is comparable to models commonly used in the literature (e.g. Mueller and Stratmann, ; Fumagalli and Narciso, ). Electoral rules and constitutions might affect voters’ participation, thus controls for the parliamentary system, compulsory voting legislation, federalism, and proportional representation are included.…”