When does inequality demobilize? New evidence from the American states

Macdonald, David

doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102282

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This result might be due to the overall low-level income of union members in the data: most people earned less than $75,000 annually. A recent study suggested that economic inequality does not demobilize turnout in salient elections (Macdonald 2021), which implies that in our studied election, low-income or middle-income unions members might decide to vote or not regardless of union contact. Though caution should be applied to the interpretation that high-income people are more susceptible to union contact, at minimum, the evidence indicates that income is not a strong differentiating factor in the relationship between canvassing and turnout, which is consistent with prior findings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Does Union Canvassing Affect Voter Turnout Under Conditions of Political Constraint? Empirical Evidence from Illinois

Lamare

Bruno

2022

Labor Studies Journal

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The positive effects of union canvassing on individual-level union member voter turnout within union-friendly environments have been well documented. Yet, whether unions increase turnout among their membership under constrained circumstances has remained unexamined. Furthermore, there is little consensus on whether union canvassing effects are generalizable to populations with heterogeneous political attributes and individual characteristics. This paper identifies the mechanisms that might explain how union canvassing can be effective under conditions characterized by anti-union legislative actions, adversarial judicial decisions, and right-wing populist rhetoric. We use canvassing and turnout data taken from the 2016 Democratic state and Cook County primary election in Illinois, and our results show that, despite constrained political circumstances relative to those found in previous studies, union canvassing achieved positive union membership turnout effects. This study also tests the moderating effects of individual political attributes (ideology and vote propensity) and voter characteristics (income and ethnicity). The most salient finding is that the effects are more potent for ideologically conservative registered Democrat voters, highlighting the imperative of recognizing the ideological heterogeneity among union members and suggesting specific resource allocation strategies under politically constrained conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Does Union Canvassing Affect Voter Turnout Under Conditions of Political Constraint? Empirical Evidence from Illinois

Lamare

Bruno

2022

Labor Studies Journal

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“…Without using the exact same terminology, several studies have also argued that the costs of abstention moderate the effect of income inequality on voter turnout. For example, analyzing turnout in US states, Macdonald (2021b) shows that the salience of elections conditions the effect of inequality on turnout: If the saliency is low, income inequality has a stronger negative impact on voter turnout. In line with these findings, Polacko et al (2021) and Polacko (2022) demonstrate that programmatic differences between parties-what they call policy polarization-lower the negative impact of income inequality not only on turnout but also on turnout inequality.…”

Section: Income Inequality and Political Equalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Inequality in Rich Democracies

Elsässer

Schäfer

2023

Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci.

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In this review, we focus on political inequality in rich democracies. In the two main sections, we look at participation and representation, respectively. The former discusses whether rising income inequality and the weakening of trade unions have led to higher levels of inequality in participation. The latter looks at substantive and descriptive representation and asks how they might be linked. Research highlights that people with fewer individual resources participate much less than those with more resources, and collective organizations lose their ability to counter these trends. In terms of representation, the pattern is very similar. Not only are the opinions of decision-makers more congruent with those of the better off but policy choices also reflect their preferences more clearly. As the social distance between rulers and ruled increases, representative democracy gets more biased in favor of higher-status social groups. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 26 is June 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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“…Studies have found inequality and turnout to exert either a negative or null relationship, with scant evidence of a positive relationship. Fully two‐thirds of studies find a negative and statistically significant effect (Anderson & Beramendi, 2008; Jaime‐Castillo, 2009: Jensen & Jespersen, 2017; Lancee & Van de Werfhorst, 2012; Macdonald, 2021; Polacko, 2022a; Polacko et al, 2021; Schäfer, 2013; Schäfer & Schwander, 2019; Solt, 2008, 2010; Steinbrecher & Seeber, 2011; Szewczyk & Crowder‐Meyer, 2022; Wilford, 2020) but the absence of any effect or, indeed, a positive effect in the other studies (Fumagalli & Narciso, 2012; Horn, 2011; Persson, 2010; Stockemer & Parent, 2014; Stockemer & Scruggs, 2012), both indicate that the relationship between inequality and turnout is complex. These academics have developed two principal theories attempting to explain the effects of inequality on turnout, namely “power resource” and “conflict” theory.…”

Section: Turnout and Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Voter turnout has been on the decline in many advanced democracies. While scholars point to a range of causes—such as generational value change (Blais & Rubenson, 2013; Kostelka & Blais, 2021), party system convergence (Callander & Wilson, 2007), declining satisfaction with democracy (Foa et al, 2020), and increasing elective institutions (Kostelka & Blais, 2021)—mounting evidence points to rising income inequality as a culprit (Anderson & Beramendi, 2008; Jaime‐Castillo, 2009: Jensen & Jespersen, 2017; Lancee & Van de Werfhorst, 2012; Macdonald, 2021; Polacko, 2022a; Polacko et al, 2021; Schäfer, 2013; Schäfer & Schwander, 2019; Solt, 2008, 2010; Steinbrecher & Seeber, 2011; Szewczyk & Crowder‐Meyer, 2022; Wilford, 2020). Simultaneously, the once‐ascendent social democratic party family has experienced pronounced electoral decline.…”

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confidence: 99%

Turning off the base: Social democracy's neoliberal turn, income inequality, and turnout

Polacko

2023

Politics & Policy

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Greater party system polarization has recently been shown to influence voter turnout under conditions of higher income inequality. This article builds on these findings by introducing into the framework the policy positions of social democratic parties. It does so through multilevel regression on a sample of 30 advanced democracies in 111 elections, from 1996 to 2019. In doing so, it contributes to the identification of party policy offerings as a mechanism moderating inequality and turnout. It finds that income inequality significantly reduces voter turnout, which is substantially magnified when social democratic parties adopt rightward welfare state positions. It also finds that social democratic parties can largely mitigate the negative effects of inequality on turnout for low‐income individuals by offering leftist welfare state positions. The findings carry important implications for understanding the electoral consequences of both party positioning and rising inequality in advanced democracies.Related ArticlesSimon, Christopher A., and Raymond Tatalovich. 2022. “The Turnout Myth and Referendum Voting in the United States.” Politics & Policy 50(3): 472–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12483.Stockemer, Daniel, and Stephanie Parent. 2013. “The Inequality Turnout Nexus: New Evidence from Presidential Elections.” Politics & Policy 42(2): 221–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12067.Wilford, Allan M. 2020. “Understanding the Competing Effects of Economic Hardship and Income Inequality on Voter Turnout.” Politics & Policy 48(2): 314–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12344.

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When does inequality demobilize? New evidence from the American states

Cited by 5 publications

References 39 publications

Does Union Canvassing Affect Voter Turnout Under Conditions of Political Constraint? Empirical Evidence from Illinois

Does Union Canvassing Affect Voter Turnout Under Conditions of Political Constraint? Empirical Evidence from Illinois

Political Inequality in Rich Democracies

Turning off the base: Social democracy's neoliberal turn, income inequality, and turnout

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