Declining voter turnout in Taiwan: A generational effect?

Abstract

Taiwan's voter turnout has declined nearly fifteen percentage points since the early 2000s. All ages voted less in 2016 than before, but the drop was particularly severe among younger voters, who turned out at rates up to twenty percentage points lower than in 2004. Thus Taiwan resembles other mature democracies like the U.S., Canada, Sweden, and Finland, where declining turnout has been shown to afflict the young disproportionately. However, we argue that this youthful disaffection with voting is more difficult to interpret than usually believed, and that it may not represent an inherent attribute of younger cohorts.