Regions as Primary Political Communities: A Multi-Level Comparative Analysis of Turnout in Regional Elections

Ailsa Henderson and Nicola McEwen

Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2015, vol. 45, issue 2, 189-215

Abstract: Despite the importance of regional democracy, comparative analyses of voter participation in regional elections are rare. We examine individual participation in regional elections in Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom and make three arguments: (i) standard models of turnout devised for national contests only partly explain regional turnout, with the personal characteristics of voters more important than contextual variables; (ii) territorial identity and the level of jurisdictional authority wielded by the regional legislature are important determinants of electors’ willingness to participate in regional elections; (iii) when we contrast subjective perception and objective/aggregate findings we see that regional legislative authority matters more than perceived salience, and individual regional identity matters more than the views of fellow citizens, but that these effects are largely conditional on age.

Date: 2015
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