2018/04/09 by Yosef Bhatti, Jens Olav Dahlgaard, Jonas Hedegaard Hansen +2 · 43 citations
Social Sciences · #Context (archaeology) #Democracy #Demographic economics #Economics #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Ethnic group #Gender Politics and Representation #Geography #Inequality #Law #Legitimacy #Political science #Politics #Social Media and Politics #Turnout #Voting
paper · open access · doi:10.1177/0032321718766246
published in Political Studies 67(2), 348-366 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2018/04/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Citizens who abstain from voting in consecutive elections and inequality in turnout in democratic elections constitute a challenge to the legitimacy of democracy. Applying the law of dispersion, which stipulates higher levels of turnout and higher levels of equality in turnout are positively related, we study turnout patterns across different types of elections in Denmark, a high-turnout European context. Across three different elections with turnout rates from 56.3% to 85.9%, we use a rich, nationwide panel dataset of 2.1 million citizens with validated turnout and high-quality sociodemographic variables. A total of 9% of the citizens are abstainers in the three consecutive elections, and these are disproportionately male, of non-Western ethnic background, with little education, and with low income. The law of dispersion finds support as inequalities in turnout increase when turnout decreases and vice versa. Furthermore, municipalities with lower turnout have higher inequalities in participation than high-turnout municipalities in local elections.