Compulsory Voting, Habit Formation, and Political Participation

Michael M. Bechtel; Dominik Hangartner; Lukas Schmid

doi:10.1162/rest_a_00701

Compulsory Voting, Habit Formation, and Political Participation

Michael M. Bechtel¹; Dominik Hangartner²; Lukas Schmid³

¹ Washington University in St. Louis and Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economic Research · ² ETH Zurich and London School of Economics · ³ University of Lucerne and Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economic Research

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2018 open access

Can electoral institutions induce lasting changes in citizens’ voting habits? We study the long-term and spillover effects of compulsory voting in the Swiss canton of Vaud (1900–1970) and find that this intervention increases turnout in federal referendums by 30 percentage points. However, despite its magnitude, the effect disappears quickly after voting is no longer compulsory. We find minor spillover effects on related forms of political participation that also vanish immediately after compulsory voting has been abolished. Overall, these results question habit formation arguments in the context of compulsory voting.

DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00701
Volume: 100 (3)
Pages: 467-476
Language: en
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