The Costs of Voting: An Empirical, Comparative Analysis

In this paper, we engage in a thorough analysis of one of the key variables in the voting equation: the costs of voting (C). While most studies treat it as an independent variable, we set to explain the factors that account for its variance. By employing the MEDW (Making Electoral Democracy Work) surveys’ data, we are able to include a direct, explicit, subjective measure of C, which can seldom be found in electoral questionnaires. In line with the few studies that have indulged in a similar task, our results show that all the variables which are often employed as “proxies” for C only account for a tiny fraction of its variability. By enriching the theoretical discussion on the determinants of C, we show that the studies available so far have neglected important explanatory factors, such as perceptions of external political efficacy. We also provide new insights on the nature of the effects of variables that had been found to be significant by previous studies, such as age, gender, education and party ID. Last, but not least, the fact of working with cross-country studies with the same direct measure of C allows us to incorporate a comparative perspective.