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Compulsory Voting and Income Inequality: Evidence for Lijphart's Proposition from Venezuela

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John M. Carey  and
Yusaku Horiuchi
John M. Carey
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College. john.carey@dartmouth.edu
Yusaku Horiuchi
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College. yusaku.horiuchi@dartmouth.edu
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Abstract

What difference does it make if the state makes people vote? The question is central to normative debates about the rights and duties of citizens in a democracy, and to contemporary policy debates in a number of Latin American countries over what actions states should take to encourage electoral participation. Focusing on a rare case of abolishing compulsory voting in Venezuela, this article shows that not forcing people to vote yielded a more unequal distribution of income. The evidence supports Arend Lijphart's claim, advanced in his 1996 presidential address to the American Political Science Association, that compulsory voting can offset class bias in turnout and, in turn, contribute to the equality of influence.

Type
Research
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , Summer 2017 , pp. 122 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2017

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