Voto facultativo no Brasil e reforço de desigualdades: apoio a cotas raciais e participação não-eleitoral entre eleitores involuntários

Abstract

Literature indicates that compulsory voting laws raise turnout rates and reduce socioeconomic and demographic systematic inequalities among voters and non-voters. However, some authors argue that electoral absence is a sign of citizens' criticism toward representative democracy, which would lead them to look for nonelectoral forms of political participation. In this sense, skills developed through civic activism would be important to overcome constraints provoked by socioeconomic inequalities to political activism. Besides, it is argued that despite turnout inequalities, political attitudes concerning the support for specific public policies are well represented by those who vote. This paper investigates whether such arguments can be applied to the Brazilian case and questions: if voting were voluntary in Brazil, would the expected absentees be critical citizens concerning representative democracy and, therefore, would they prefer alternative options of political participation? Furthermore, in spite of the socioeconomic inequalities among voters and absentees, can we expect the support for the policy of racial quotas to be equally represented? Our analysis is based on quantitative methodology and our data is provided by the 2014 Brazilian Electoral Study. Our results suggest that the expected voluntary voters are the same citizens who are politically engaged in non-electoral activities and oppose racial quotas, which precisely assist people from racial groups who are less likely to vote voluntarily. Therefore, existent social inequalities among voters and non-voters are expected to be reinforced since they would be present at other arenas of political participation and are related to the support for a specific public policy.

Afinal, Quem Foi Votar Em 2022

“…Mas essa é apenas uma suposição. Pesquisas de opinião realizadas recentemente mostram que a disposição ao comparecimento eleitoral estaria mais associada ao interesse por política do que a características demográficas dos eleitores (Aguiar, 2018;Aguiar and Casalecchi, 2021;Nicolau, 2022).…”

Essays in public food procurement: the case of PNAE in Brazil

“…When asked if they would vote if it was not compulsory in Brazil, most people who answer "no" are female, black and have not finished high school (Nicolau, 2022;Aguiar, 2018), these characteristics are also more frequent in lower income people.…”