Voting In Practise

Question 1

What is the difference between voting as a right or a duty

Answer 1

In some countries is a civic duty and citizens are punished if they do not vote

In many countries it is a civic right and the voting is voluntary in this case the turnout to elections varies depends on different factors ( across countries, type of elections, demographic and socioeconomic groups)

Question 2

How many countries have compulsory voting

Answer 2

27 countries and 10 of them enforce it

Question 3

When is voter turn out higher

Answer 3

Voter turnout is higher in general elections compared to local ones and it is higher when more senstive issues are a t stake e.g. refrudem, leaving the EU 2016

Question 4

Why do voters vote

Answer 4

The rational voter will vote if the benefits of voting are greater than the cost of voting - this concerns the outcomee which would benfit the voter but only if they can affect the outcome
- this will depend on the probability of voter i being pivotal pi
- and the benefit from the outcome Bi
- the costs will include the informational ( processing and stressing and not living their life ) transportation opportunity costs Ci (aggregate cost)

Question 6

What does PiBi> Ci mena

Answer 6

The probability of affecting the outcome pi is very small the voter is more likely to abstain
This proximity will affect the number of voters Therfore the larger the election the more likely agents are to vote
Leading to paradox of voting

Question 8

What is the paradox of voting

Answer 8

Downs (1957) the probability of affecting thr outcome by one single vote is very small and the rational voter is likely to abstain
However historically we observe a much higher turnout - relevant is larger elections
Pi is a function of how many votes

Question 9

If there are two options and 1,000,000 voters and it is 50/50 split whe will the vote mater

Answer 9

Your vote will only matter if you are the pivotal vote
Making the probability of being the pivotal voter

Question 10

When is it rational or irrational for voters to vote

Answer 10

Voters should vote when the probability of there outcome happening is higher than the cost of

They should abstain from voting when the cost of voting is higher than the probability of there outcome is lower than the cost of

Question 11

What does Aldrich 1997 say about voting

Answer 11

The rationality of voting is the Achilles heel of rational choice theory in political science

Explain voter turnout makes us challenge the economic assumption of rational agents

Alledgadly everyone that turns out to vote who is not the pivotal voter is irrrational
Rational voter is ignorant as info is costly

Question 12

What does downs 1957 say about voters

Answer 12

Based on the fact that information is costly the rational voter must be ignorant about the relevant relevant aspects of his desicion marking

Question 13

What is Dhillon and Peralta (2002) typology

Answer 13

• objective function theory
• voter rationality theory
• Benevolent or altruistic theory
• information based theories (are there informational problems that are crucial for turnout decision)

Question 14

What is objectivite function explanation

Answer 14

• instrumental motivations
  Voters only care about the outcome of their vote
• vote value decreases as the number of voter increase ( and this is the discounted utility by the probability that her vote will count )
  Given that the vote value per vote is small in large elections even a very small cost should encourage rational voter to abstain
  Therfore these models cannot explain the voter turnout

Question 15

What is the second explanation for the objective function based

Answer 15

Expressive motivations
- people care about the expressive value of voting ( avoiding ones self worth and illustrating you care and make you looks better - how you are perceived)
They vote as it attaches them to the outcome and not so much because of theor influence on the utcome
This however doesn’t rule out the instrumental motivations Voters only- and more so ads to the expressive benefits Di

Question 16

What is expressive motivations

Answer 16

If the expressive outcome (Di) is greater than the cost then a rational voter will vote
Voting gives the voter utility
This will create a bandwagon effect - the more that vote the more those hesitating will regardless of their values
- however it hard to measure the expressive element

Question 17

Rationality revision explanation

Answer 17

• this questions the rationality of the voters - voter do not calculate accurately the probability of being pivotal
• they may have regret from previous elections about not voting
• closing the opinion before the vote may make people vote even more and may make people think thy are the pivotal turnout
• this however doesn’t rule not predict why the turnout will be high

Question 18

Altruism based explanation

Answer 18

• an altruistic voter is an active supporter if theor group and such voyer receives utility not only from voting but Leo from supporting the group
• receiving ethical values from helping other ( different from i hope to effect the outcome) and this maximises the chances of the group wining
  Therefore the stronger the group the more likely the group is to support each other ( and more altruistic feeling within the group eg party memebersgip and feelings of belonging )
• this model doesn’t explain freerider behaviour and as an economist isn’t hard o pin everything onto altruism

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Question 19

Information based explination feeders en and pesendrfer (1996) swing voters curse

Answer 19

• They show that voters that think of themselves as uninformed will abstain from voting and let informed people vote and make decisions
  
  • abstenation is considered optimal and rational choice when voter are uniformed

Question 20

What is swing voters curse

Answer 20

Less informed/ indifferent voter prefer to abstain rather than vote
They may be indifferent because the are misinformed but they may be misinformed and Therfore be indifferent
This is rational and holds even if the voting is costless

Question 21

What is the summary on why people vote ( 4 explanations)

Answer 21

1. Objective function - caring about policy ( rational choice / caring about identity ( expressive choice) and people vote because there is value in their utility functions
2. Rationality revision - relaxing the assumption on full rationality people cannot fully evaluate the probability of them being pivotal ( may overestimate or underestimate their impact
3. Altruism theory - voting introduces social benfit fora group ( they believe its their ethical concern and sense of duty
4. Information based theory - people will abstain from voting as they believe they are min formed and they will then deklegate their vote to informed voter ( considered rational)

Question 22

Voting to tell others - DellaVigna et al 2017

Answer 22

• They propose that social image motivations matter
• model: happy to share if you did vote but feeling of shame or lying to say you didn’t vite
• field experiment: door to door canvassing in Chicago after 2010 elections
• motivation is large as they are paid 5-15 dollars to vote
• flyer
  Different group served flyers in different ways and given out by undergrads in Chicago ( prewarned that they were coming)
• findings: non voters feelshame but voters do not feel pride ( non voters are 20% more likely to open the door ) and in general non voters were less likely overall to open the door
  Mainframn finding: non voters lie and Celiatat they vote half the time while voters tell the truth - evidence that non voters want to be seen as voters
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Question 24

Battaglini et al 2010

Answer 24

• This provides the first lab study at Princeton Lab for experimental social science (PLESS) and they find support for the swing voter curse
• main finding: almost all informed voters chose correctly and uninformed voter abstain from voting as they
• strong evidence supporting swing voters curse
• however not all others have the same prefrences ( to get it right and earn more payoffs)

Question 25

Habit forming in voting

Answer 25

- Habit formation in voting means that the act of voting affects voting decisions in the future - to measure this: we need unexpected and transitory shocks to voting costs ( this affects desicions to vote) and then this will see if future voting behaviour is affected

Question 26

How do Fujiwara T, K Meng and T Vogel (2016) test habit formation

Answer 26

They look at rainfall n election day as rainfall is random and unexpected and transitory

Question 27

What doe the result of looking at rainfall on election day show

Answer 27

- They find a positive relationship ( habit forming effect) as turnout decreases by 0.6- 1 pp compared to past turnout - And they conclude that voting turnout is based on a mixture of civic duty and social pressure in voting This also not to do with persisting charges in voting costs updating of voters beliefs / benefits of election outcomes

Question 28

What are the implication of habit forming on voting and why is it important

Answer 28

Compulsory voting for a period of time my work to increase voting turnout in the LR It may add a multiplier effect to get out and vote as well as media campaigns and these may lead to voter turnout - habit formation may also influence the optimal age to vote through targeting certain demographics of citizens

Question 29

What is evidence for habit forming

Answer 29

Fujiwara et al 2016 - seeing voting patterns by age voting is higher in presidential elections and it is highest for people aged between 20 and 60 and dip in old age by voting increases with age Befall the voting turnout is decreasing from the IDEA - this could be spurring the idea that voting should be compulsory

Question 31

Should we make voting compulsory

Answer 31

Global voting is declining making it a problem in many democracies There is evidence that minority groups are more likely to Bastian - MVT increasing participation would affect the outcome and change policies - in the case of the women suffragette, women’s right to vote increase the spending on healthcare However there are studies done in Aussie, Switzerland, Brazil, have shown that small fines for not voting or penalties participation in the elections is significantly higher than ( De Leon and Rizzi 2014) - there is no impact on th vote shares of either the rightor left wing parties spending The mpliation of voter induced to voting are not that different compared to when they are not voting - this shows that making a strong case that if you do or dont vote is insignificant to the outcome - furthermore if voters are unresponsive to policy in deciding what parties to support it means politicians have little incentive to shape policy around voters prefrences