Voter Turnout Summary

Franklin, M. N. (2006). Voter turnout and the dynamics of electoral competition in established democracies since 1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Franklin poses the question “why do people bother to vote at all and why is turnout so stable over time?” Franklin argues that most people have adopted a 'standing decision' to vote or not to vote, based on their early experiences of elections in their country. He also stated that "turnout appears to be stable because, for most people, the habit of voting is established relatively early in their adult lives." He argues that voting is a habit. People learn the habit of voting, or not, based on their experience in their first few elections. Franklin also takes a close look at why some citizens are motivated to vote more than other citizens. Most of the book is spent on determining the factors that lead to declining turnout and ways to remedy it. Franklin argues that it’s important to establish how voter turnout serves as an indicator of the

G. (2013). Five Studies on the Causes and Consequences of Voter Turnout. Retrieved September 05, 2017, from https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/11156810

Fowler examines whether or not low or unequal voter turnout influences partisan election results or public policies. He argues that in every election in every advanced democracy in the world, many citizens fail to participate in the democratic process, and those who turn out to vote are systematically unrepresentative of the eligible population which poses a significant challenge for democratic government which was designed with the goal of translating public preferences into public policies. Fowler also argues that citizens’ preferences cannot be represented if they fail to participate in the simplest and most fundamental part of the democratic process (voting). He also argues that low and unequal turnout is a serious problem for democracy because election results fail to reflect the preferences of the