2004/09/01 by Carolina A. Fornos, Timothy J. Power, James C. Garand · 309 citations
Social Sciences · #Demographic economics #Demography #Development economics #Economics #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Latin Americans #Law #Legislature #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Politics and Society in Latin America #Presidential system #Public administration #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Socioeconomic status #Sociology #Turnout #Voter turnout #Voting
paper · doi:10.1177/0010414004267981
published in Comparative Political Studies 37(8), 909-940 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2004/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
Previous cross-national research on voter turnout has focused attention primarily on Western industrial democracies, with relatively little attention paid to turnout in developing countries. In this article, the authors extend the research program on comparative voter turnout to presidential and legislative elections held in Latin American countries from 1980 to 2000. Building on previous research, the authors estimate a series of models that represent the effects of institutional, socioeconomic, and political variables in shaping turnout. The findings suggest that turnout in Latin American countries is influenced primarily by institutional variables (such as unicameralism, compulsoryvoting, and concurrent legislative and executive elections) and political variables (i.e., founding elections and political freedoms). Surprisingly, the authors find that socioeconomic variables, which are found to have strong effects on turnout in Western democracies, are unrelated to turnout in Latin American countries.