Voter turnout in politically homogeneous and dichotomous contexts: A comparison of two electoral systems

Abstract

The article analyses the impact of the local political context on voter turnout. Two specific situations are studied, i.e. contexts where one political party dominates and contexts where the political support is evenly split between two large parties. Voter turnout in these two constellations is compared with communities where the vote is fragmented between several parties. Moreover, the electoral system is treated as an intervening variable and two countries with different electoral systems are included in the study. All democratic parliamentary elections in Finland (PR) and Great Britain (FPTP) are studied. Thus, the time span covers eight decades from 1918 to 2001. The theoretical approach model is based on hypotheses of social gravity and cross-pressures. It is established that the local political context affects voter turnout clearly in the plurality system, whereas the effects in the proportional system are less apparent.