Electoral Revolutions: A Comparative Study of Rapid Changes in Voter Turnout

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dc.contributor.advisorKauffman, Craig
dc.contributor.authorLioy, Alberto
dc.date.accessioned2020-12-08T15:47:24Z
dc.date.available2020-12-08T15:47:24Z
dc.date.issued2020-12-08
dc.description.abstractIn the political science scholarship on democratic elections, aggregate voter turnout is assumed to be stable, and depends upon an acquired habit across the electorate. Large turnout variations in a short period of time are therefore usually attributed to negligible contextual factors. This work establishes that such variations are more frequent than commonly thought and creates a novel theoretical framework and methodological approach for systematically studying rapid changes in voter turnout across Western Europe and Latin America. I attribute dramatic changes in voters’ participation, labeled electoral revolutions, to transformations in the party system competition and institutional credibility happening inside the national political context. Methodologically, it applies a detailed qualitative codebook to large samples of broad diffusion newspapers to trace the evolution of politics before the watershed elections that took place in France (1967), Great Britain (2001), Costa Rica (1998) and Honduras (2013). It finds that voter turnout dramatically increases in the presence of strengthening opposition parties, more credible institutions and a more differentiated party systems. Conversely, electoral participation is gravely damaged when opposition formations become weaker and more divided, when the administration loses popular support and political parties become less ideologically diverse. Finally, it establishes electoral revolutions as substantially important political phenomena with deep political and societal consequences, which policymakers and scholars choose to neglect at their own risk.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/25897
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregon
dc.rightsAll Rights Reserved.
dc.subjectelectionsen_US
dc.subjecteuropean politicsen_US
dc.subjectlatin american politicsen_US
dc.subjectparty systemsen_US
dc.subjectqualitative methodsen_US
dc.subjectvoter turnouten_US
dc.titleElectoral Revolutions: A Comparative Study of Rapid Changes in Voter Turnout
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
thesis.degree.disciplineDepartment of Political Science
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Oregon
thesis.degree.leveldoctoral
thesis.degree.namePh.D.

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