An Empirical Analysis of Voter Turnout in the Netherlands

Abstract

The last decade or so, many attempts have been made to explain voting behavior using economic or demographic variables. One of the questions asked, is the impact of individual characteristics on the decision to vote or abstain. This chapter starts by discussing some studies that have looked into this matter. The conclusions of these studies as well as the methods of research and the shortcomings thereof will be surveyed. This discussion will serve as a starting point for our own research, presented in the following sections. The emphasis in this Chapter is on the empirical literature relating personal characteristics to voter turnout. The more fundamental question why people take the trouble to vote is addressed in Part IV of this book. There, the existing (theoretical) literature on the calculus of voting is discussed and a model of voter turnout is developed. The present chapter is only concerned with mapping out the turnout behavior of various groups of individuals.

This chapter is a revised version of Jaarsma, Schram, and van Winden (1985), see also Jaarsma, Schram, and van Winden (1986a,b).