Acute Financial Hardship and Voter Turnout: Theory and Evidence from the Sequence of Bank Working Days
| Autor: | Schaub, Max |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Politikwissenschaft
Political science ZA4586: ALLBUS/GGSS 1980-2016 (Kumulierte Allgemeine Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften / Cumulated German General Social Survey 1980-2016) politische Willensbildung politische Soziologie politische Kultur Political Process Elections Political Sociology Political Culture Armut politische Partizipation Wahlbeteiligung Repräsentation Bundesrepublik Deutschland poverty political participation voter turnout representation Federal Republic of Germany 10500 |
| Zdroj: | American Political Science Review, 115, 4, 1258-1274 |
| Druh dokumentu: | Zeitschriftenartikel<br />journal article |
| ISSN: | 1537-5943 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/S0003055421000551 |
| Popis: | How does poverty influence political participation? This question has interested political scientists since the early days of the discipline, but providing a definitive answer has proved difficult. This article focuses on one central aspect of poverty—the experience of acute financial hardship, lasting a few days at a time. Drawing on classic models of political engagement and novel theoretical insights, I argue that by inducing stress, social isolation, and feelings of alienation, acute financial hardship has immediate negative effects on political participation. Inference relies on a natural experiment afforded by the sequence of bank working days that causes short-term financial difficulties for the poor. Using data from three million individuals, personal interviews, and 1,100 elections in Germany, I demonstrate that acute financial hardship reduces both turnout intentions and actual turnout. The results imply that the financial status of the poor on election day can have important consequences for their political representation. |
| Databáze: | SSOAR – Social Science Open Access Repository |
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