Why Do People Not Vote? Several Remarks on Non-Voter Profile in Post-Communist Europe

Abstract

The increasing levels of electoral abstention across ‘new’ European democracies can downgrade the legitimacy of these regimes. From this point of view, the basic question ‘who does not vote and why?’ gains new relevance. My article focuses on the determinants of non-voting from a cross-national perspective. I present two approaches towards explaining electoral abstention. The first, arising from the Michigan model, is based on a solid connection between party choice and participation. This approach considers the lack of party identification as the main reason for non-voting. The second approach emphasizes the role of the decision-making process in abstention itself, without regard to the selection of a preferred party, and is connected with well-known concepts like political efficacy, trust, interest, and satisfaction. These explanations have often been utilized for well-established democracies, yet how do they work in post-Communist space? After a brief theoretical discussion, I investigate the robustness of presented theories by means of empirical analysis of the situation in 11 post-Communist countries. The European Social Survey 2008 is used for the verification of the importance of both approaches.