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About voting and non‐voting in the European elections of June 1989
Author(s) -
SCHMITT HERMANN,
MANNHEIMER RENATO
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1991.tb01176.x
Subject(s) - voting , general election , political science , politics , contrast (vision) , ranked voting system , political economy , demographic economics , economics , law , computer science , artificial intelligence
This article reviews conventional wisdom about determinants of electoral participation in general, and of participation in European elections in particular. A model of European electoral participation is proposed which relates indicators of general political involvement, European attitudes and orientations and social‐structural background characteristics to both intended and reported participation. In contrast to the findings of earlier research, it appears that the participation of EC citizens in the European elections of June 1989 ‐ as reported in the post‐electoral surveys of the European Elections Study 1989 ‐ was primarily the result of ‘habitual voting’. Irrespective of their EC related attitudes and more general political involvement, those who participated went to the polls just because they are used to doing so on election day.