EC134 Lecture 5

Voting Paradox and Voter Turnout

Learning sheet

Minh Tung Le

1 Outline and Learning Objectives

The second of the three lectures on political economy focused on voter turnout and related topics. We are

going to discuss the nature of the Voting Paradox, and how researchers attempted to explain it without

abadoning Rational Choice Theory. We also explore different methods employed by government and

political parties to increase voter turnout.

• Voting Paradox: Students should familiarize themself with the definition of voter turnout and

how the Rational Choice Theory leads to the Voting Paradox.

– What is Voter Turnout and Why is it important?

– What is Voting Paradox and how is it linked to the Rational Choice Theory?

– Some of the attempts by researchers to explain Voting Paradox?

– Some political and economic factors that affect Voter Turnout.

• Voter Mobilisation: Students should be able to understand and analyse some of the common

methods to increase Voter Turnout by government and political parties.

– Door-to-door Canvassing;

– Electronic Mail and Social Media;

– Vote Buying.

1
2 Sample Exam Questions

• Short questions:

– Briefly explain Voting Paradox and Riker and Ordershook’s (1968) attempt to explain it the-

oretically and empirically.

– List two common methods of Voter Mobilisation and evaluate their effectiveness.

• Long questions:

– Drawing on the literature about political participation, discuss the factors that seek to explain

the paradox of voting. On top of that, explain why lower levels of turnout can be problematic

for democracy, and examine some of the initiatives that have been adopted in different countries

to increase political participation during the elections. Finally, discuss how economists can

measure efficacy of these initiatives.

3 Additional Reading

• Dhillon, A., and Peralta, S. (2002). Economic theories of voter turnout. The Economic Journal,

112, 480, F332-F352.