Unequal Political Participation Worldwide

254 Pages·2014·2.256 MB·English

by  Professor Aina Gallego

UnequalPoliticalParticipationWorldwide
Highly educated citizens vote at much lower rates than less
educatedcitizensinsomecountries.Bycontrast,electoralpar-
ticipation exhibits no such bias in other countries as diverse
asSpain,Denmark,andSouthKorea.Thisbookdescribesthe
levels of unequal participation in thirty-six countries world-
wide,examinespossiblecausesofthisphenomenon,anddis-
cusses its consequences. Aina Gallego illustrates how elec-
toralprocedures,partyandmediasystems,unionization,and
income inequality impact unequal participation through an
originalcombinationofcross-nationalsurveydataandsurvey
experiments.
AinaGallegoisaRamonyCajalFellow(AssistantProfessor)
at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies. She com-
pletedherdoctoraldissertationattheAutonomousUniversity
of Barcelona in 2008, and she was a postdoctoral scholar at
Stanford University and the Spanish High Research Council.
Her research focuses on several aspects of democratic repre-
sentation,includinginequalitiesinvoterturnoutandpolitical
participation, the formation of political preferences, and the
effectsofelectoralsystemsandincomeinequalityonpolitical
behavior.

The Centro de Investigaciones Sociolo´gicas (CIS) is an indepen-
dent entity assigned to the Ministry of the Presidency. Its main
remitistocontributescientificknowledgetoSpanishsociety.
TheCISgathersthenecessarydataforresearchindisparatefields,
from trends in public opinion to applied research. Hence, the
CISis responsible for carrying out studies that provide accurate
diagnoses to guide the work of the public authorities in charge
ofthedifferentadministrations.
The CIS is known mainly for carrying out surveys that allow
advances to be made in the knowledge of Spanish society and
its evolution over time. However, it also performs other tasks
insupportingtrainingandresearchwithinthesphereofthesocial
sciences.
CIS publications (the Revista Espan˜ola de Investigaciones
Sociolo´gicas, REIS) and various collections of books are abasic
channel for research dissemination that contributes to scientific
knowledgeonsociety.

Unequal Political Participation
Worldwide
AINA GALLEGO
BarcelonaInstituteofInternationalStudies
32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,ny10013-2473,usa
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107023536
CIS
Montalban´,8
28014,Madrid,Spain
(cid:2)C AinaGallego2015
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2015
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Gallego,Aina,1981–
Unequalpoliticalparticipationworldwide/AinaGallego.
pagescm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-1-107-02353-6(hardback)
1.Politicalparticipation–Cross-culturalstudies. 2.Democracy–
Cross-culturalstudies. I.Title.
jf799.g35 2014
323(cid:3).042–dc23 2014022606
isbn978-1-107-02353-6Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy
ofurlsforexternalorthird-partyInternetWebsitesreferredtointhis
publicationanddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchWebsitesis,or
willremain,accurateorappropriate.
Contents
ListofTables pagexi
ListofFigures xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
1 UnequalParticipationAroundtheWorld 13
PreviousResearchonEducationandVoting 14
EducationModelsandMeasurementofUnequal
Participation 18
VoterTurnoutbyEducationAroundtheWorld 23
ImplicationsofVariabilityinUnequalParticipation 31
2 HeterogeneousConsequencesofContextson
Participation 35
WhyCitizensVote 37
BaselineUnequalParticipation 40
HomogeneousandHeterogeneousConsequences
ofContexts 42
HeterogeneousEffectsbyEducationLevel:
Registration 47
CeilingEffects:VoterTurnoutandCompulsory
Voting 50
AssessingtheLinkBetweenContextualFeaturesand
TurnoutInequality 55
vii
viii Contents
3 TheDifficultyoftheVotingProcedure 57
BallotStructure,CognitiveCosts,andPreference
Expression 59
ConsequencesofBallotStructureforParticipation 62
ExperimentalEvidenceontheConsequencesof
ChangesintheBallotStructure 65
TheNumberofVotesExperiment 66
TheOpen–ClosedBallotExperiment 70
Cross-NationalEvidenceontheAssociationof
BallotStructureandParticipation 74
4 GovernmentFragmentationandMediaSystems 87
GovernmentFragmentationandtheCognitive
DifficultyofVoting 89
TheCoalitionsExperiment 93
Cross-NationalBivariateAssociation 101
MediaSystemsandEaseofAccesstoPolitical
Information 103
MultivariateAnalysisonCoalitionsandMedia
Systems 108
TheCognitiveCostsofVotingAffectPoorly
EducatedPeopleDisproportionately 112
5 TradeUnionsintheHighlyEducatedMembership
Era 114
TheClassicalMobilizationAccount 116
DoTradeUnionsEnhanceTurnoutEquality? 119
TradeUnionsandTheirComposition 126
TradeUnionsandTurnoutInequality 131
MobilizationbyPoliticalParties 141
6 IncomeInequalityandtheParticipationof
Lower-StatusGroups 144
TheoriesofIncomeInequalityandParticipation 146
ReviewofPreviousEmpiricalStudies 149
AGraphicalBivariateDescription 151
MultivariateAnalysesandPoliticalAttitudesasa
Mechanism 154
IncomeInequalityandPoliticalBehavior 163
7 ConsequencesofUnequalParticipationfor
Representation 168
HeterogeneousPreferencesAmongPopulations 171