When Do the Rich Vote Less Than the Poor and Why? Explaining Turnout Inequality across the World

Abstract

The conventional wisdom that the poor are less likely to vote than the rich is based upon research on voting behavior in advanced industrialized countries. However, in some places, the relationship between turnout and socioeconomic status is reversed. We argue that the potential tax exposure of the rich explains the positive relationship between income and voting in some places and not others. Where the rich anticipate taxation, they have a greater incentive to participate in politics, and politicians are more likely to use fiscal policy to gain support. We explore two factors affecting the tax exposure of the rich-the political salience of redistribution in party politics and the state's extractive capacity. Using survey data from developed and developing countries, we demonstrate that the rich turn out to vote at higher rates when the political preferences of the rich and poor diverge and where bureaucratic capacity is high.

Information Technology and Political Engagement: Mixed Evidence from Uganda

“…That parties are often organized on ethnic or geographic basisrather than by class or religion-further contributes to the non-programmatic nature of almost all political parties, in Africa and beyond (Riedl, 2014). Although voting rates among the poor are sometimes higher (Kasara and Suryanarayan, 2014) this may reflect differences in mobilization (or the repression of mobilization efforts) in different contexts and does not extend immediately to other types of engagement.…”

Does Compulsory Voting Increase Support for Leftist Policy?

“…One of the fundamental objectives of democracy is to ensure that public policy responds to citizens' needs. A large literature has demonstrated, however, that there exist significant differences in civic engagement across politically relevant, sociodemographic divides: Low income earners, the less educated, the less urban, the young, and those belonging to ethnic minorities have a significantly lower propensity to vote (Armingeon and Schädel ; Kasara and Suryanarayan ; Mueller and Stratmann ; Nevitte et al. ; Verba, Schlozman, and Brady ) .…”

Bringing the polls to the people: How electoral access encourages turnout but shapes political inequality

“…Those who are more economically engaged likely also face greater opportunity costs -they hold higher valuations of their time. Electoral participation in the early 2000s was typically declining in income in South Africa (Everatt, 2016), and the same relationship has been found in 9 other African democracies (Kuenzi and Lambright, 2011) and across many other parts of the developing world (Kasara and Suryanarayan, 2015).…”