| 1. |
- Aggeborn, Linuz, et al.
(författare)
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Does Election Salience Affect Immigrant Voter Turnout?
- 2020
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Faced with rising levels of cross-border migration, many democratic countries have extended local voting rights to non-naturalized immigrants in recent decades. However, the low turnout of enfranchised immigrants in these elections has come as a disappointment to the advocates of such reforms. In this study, we examine whether the low turnout can be explained by the low salience of local elections. Based on a regression discontinuity design and using high-quality Swedish registry data, we find this to be the case. According to our results, the average likelihood of voting increases by 10-20 percentage points once immigrants become eligible to vote in national elections. We demonstrate too that this effect is not driven by the acquisition of citizenship per se, and that the individual characteristics of immigrants cannot explain their overall lower rate of voter turnout.
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| 2. |
- Aggeborn, Linuz, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Granting Immigrants the Right to Vote in National Elections : Empirical Evidence from Swedish Administrative Data
- 2024
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Ingår i: British Journal of Political Science. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0007-1234 .- 1469-2112. ; 54:3, s. 712-729
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Faced with rising levels of cross-border migration, many countries have extended local voting rights to non-citizen residents. However, empirical evidence indicates that voter turnout among non-naturalized immigrants is lower when compared to citizens. This raises the question of how to explain this difference. A common answer is that the low turnout rates of non-citizen residents are primarily due to the socio-economic composition of this group and the challenges involved in adapting to a new political system. An alternative but less discussed possibility is that the low turnout concerns the nature of the elections. Hence, we examine whether the turnout of non-citizens is hampered because they are only allowed to partake in local elections. Based on a regression discontinuity design (RDD) using Swedish administrative data, we find that turnout could increase by 10-20 percentage points if the voting rights of non-citizens were extended to the national level.
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| 3. |
- Dancygier, Rafaela, et al.
(författare)
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Candidate Supply Is Not a Barrier to Immigrant Representation : A Case-Control Study
- 2021
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Ingår i: American Journal of Political Science. - : Wiley. - 0092-5853 .- 1540-5907. ; 65:3, s. 683-698
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Immigrants are underrepresented in most democratic parliaments. To explain the immigrant-native representation gap, existing research emphasizes party gatekeepers and structural conditions. But a more complete account must consider the possibility that the representation gap begins at the supply stage. Are immigrants simply less interested in elected office? To test this explanation, we carried out an innovative case-control survey in Sweden. We surveyed elected politicians, candidates for local office, and residents who have not run; stratified these samples by immigrant status; and linked all respondents to local political opportunity structures. We find that differences in political ambition, interest, and efficacy do not help explain immigrants' underrepresentation. Instead, the major hurdles lie in securing a candidate nomination and being placed on an electable list position. We conclude that there is a sufficient supply of potential immigrant candidates, but immigrants' ambition is thwarted by political elites.
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| 4. |
- Dancygier, Rafaela M., et al.
(författare)
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Why Are Immigrants Underrepresented in Politics? Evidence from Sweden
- 2015
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Ingår i: American Political Science Review. - 0003-0554 .- 1537-5943. ; 109:4, s. 703-724
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Widespread and persistent political underrepresentation of immigrant-origin minorities poses deep challenges to democratic practice and norms. What accounts for this underrepresentation? Two types of competing explanations are prevalent in the literature: accounts that base minority underrepresentation on individual-level resources and accounts that emphasize political opportunity structures. However, due to the lack of data suitable for testing these explanations, existing research has not been able to adjudicate between these theories. Using registry-based microdata covering the entire Swedish adult population between 1991 and 2010 our study is the first to empirically evaluate these alternative explanations. We examine election outcomes to municipal councils over the course of six elections and find that variation in individual-level resources cannot explain immigrants' underrepresentation. Further, when comparing immigrants and natives who face comparable political opportunity structures a large representation gap remains. Instead, we argue that discrimination by party gatekeepers plays a more significant role in perpetuating the underrepresentation of immigrants than do individual resources or structural variables.
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| 5. |
- Håfström Dehdari, Sirus, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Early voting can widen the turnout gap : The case of childbirth
- 2024
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Ingår i: Electoral Studies. - : Elsevier. - 0261-3794 .- 1873-6890. ; 90
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Early voting procedures boost voter participation and have therefore been suggested as institutional remedies for the problem of unequal turnout. Scholars have, however, raised concerns that making voting more convenient may actually lead to a less representative electorate. We contribute to this debate by leveraging large-scale Swedish registry data to analyze persons expecting a child around the time of the election. Our results indicate that politically engaged high-status voters are more likely to use the opportunity to vote in advance when faced with the risk of not being able to vote on election day. Given the large number of obstacles to election-day voting that individuals face throughout life, it is therefore conceivable that efforts to make voting more convenient and less costly for citizens may in the end lead to less representative electorates.
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| 6. |
- Håfström Dehdari, Sirus, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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The Ex-Factor : Examining the Gendered Effect of Divorce on Voter Turnout
- 2022
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Ingår i: American Political Science Review. - 0003-0554 .- 1537-5943. ; 116:4, s. 1293-1308
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The absence of a gendered analysis of the effect of marriage on voting is surprising given researchers’ cognizance of the heterogeneous effects of marriage on a range of other social outcomes. In this paper, we shed new light on spousal dependency by studying the gendered effect of marital disruption, in the form of divorce, on voter turnout. First, drawing on Swedish populationwide data, we use the differential timing of divorces in relation to general elections to generate more credible estimates of the causal effect of divorce on turnout. Second, although we find that both sexes are adversely affected by divorce, we show that the effect is much more pronounced for men. Specifically, the long-term effect is almost twice as large for men. Finally, we use these data to show that the gendered effect of divorce is mainly driven by asymmetrical spousal mobilization due to higher levels of turnout among women.
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| 7. |
- Lindgren, Karl-Oskar, et al.
(författare)
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The electoral impact of the financial crisis : Evidence using district-level data
- 2016
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Ingår i: Electoral Studies. - : Elsevier BV. - 0261-3794 .- 1873-6890. ; 44, s. 214-224
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do economic downturns increase voter support for left or right parties? In our empirical analysis, we combine fine-grained registry-data on the labor market impact of the crisis and how it varied across 5000 electoral districts, with district-level data on vote-shares for all major parties in Swedish parliamentary elections before and after the crisis. Because the impact was so diverse across districts, we can estimate the electoral impact of unemployment more efficiently than usual. Moreover, because the crisis was an external and unexpected shock to the Swedish economy, we argue that the selection bias that is usually inherent in estimating the electoral impact of unemployment is mitigated. We find that the electoral impact of crisis-induced unemployment was large, benefiting right parties.
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