Different Class Citizens: Understanding the Relationship between Socio-economic Inequality and Voting Abstention

In most established democracies the turnout gap along class lines has increased substantially since the 1980s. Political participation has become a question of resources: income, property, formal education, secure employment and overall social status determine citizens’ engagement in political decis...

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Autores principales:	Ehs Tamara, Zandonella Martina
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	CS EN SK
Publicado:	Sciendo 2021
Materias:	voter turnout social inequality participation mixed methods design Political science J
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/3a4bc1d58f7b44a5bf4b08cfbb5bfe2d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:3a4bc1d58f7b44a5bf4b08cfbb5bfe2d2021-12-05T14:11:09ZDifferent Class Citizens: Understanding the Relationship between Socio-economic Inequality and Voting Abstention1801-342210.2478/pce-2021-0022https://doaj.org/article/3a4bc1d58f7b44a5bf4b08cfbb5bfe2d2021-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2021-0022https://doaj.org/toc/1801-3422In most established democracies the turnout gap along class lines has increased substantially since the 1980s. Political participation has become a question of resources: income, property, formal education, secure employment and overall social status determine citizens’ engagement in political decision-making. Using a mixed methods approach, our case-study shows that this also applies to Vienna – an overall rich city with a long tradition of social reform policies, often credited with the highest quality of life in the world. Although Vienna still has a relatively high turnout by international standards, political participation is very unevenly distributed once socio-economic resources are taken into account. Thereby and throughout life, class shapes people’s experiences with and as part of democracy. These experiences in turn have long-term effects on their trust in the political system and on their political self-efficacy. Our findings first and foremost contribute to the ongoing debate on democracy’s social imbalance and show that its consequences already apply on the regional level. The study additionally highlights the usefulness of mixed methods approaches when we aim at a better understanding of the class-based turnout gap.Ehs TamaraZandonella MartinaSciendoarticlevoter turnoutsocial inequalityparticipationmixed methods designPolitical scienceJCSENSKPolitics in Central Europe, Vol 17, Iss 3, Pp 525-540 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	CS EN SK
topic	voter turnout social inequality participation mixed methods design Political science J
spellingShingle	voter turnout social inequality participation mixed methods design Political science J Ehs Tamara Zandonella Martina Different Class Citizens: Understanding the Relationship between Socio-economic Inequality and Voting Abstention
description	In most established democracies the turnout gap along class lines has increased substantially since the 1980s. Political participation has become a question of resources: income, property, formal education, secure employment and overall social status determine citizens’ engagement in political decision-making. Using a mixed methods approach, our case-study shows that this also applies to Vienna – an overall rich city with a long tradition of social reform policies, often credited with the highest quality of life in the world. Although Vienna still has a relatively high turnout by international standards, political participation is very unevenly distributed once socio-economic resources are taken into account. Thereby and throughout life, class shapes people’s experiences with and as part of democracy. These experiences in turn have long-term effects on their trust in the political system and on their political self-efficacy. Our findings first and foremost contribute to the ongoing debate on democracy’s social imbalance and show that its consequences already apply on the regional level. The study additionally highlights the usefulness of mixed methods approaches when we aim at a better understanding of the class-based turnout gap.
format	article
author	Ehs Tamara Zandonella Martina
author_facet	Ehs Tamara Zandonella Martina
author_sort	Ehs Tamara
title	Different Class Citizens: Understanding the Relationship between Socio-economic Inequality and Voting Abstention
title_short	Different Class Citizens: Understanding the Relationship between Socio-economic Inequality and Voting Abstention
title_full	Different Class Citizens: Understanding the Relationship between Socio-economic Inequality and Voting Abstention
title_fullStr	Different Class Citizens: Understanding the Relationship between Socio-economic Inequality and Voting Abstention
title_full_unstemmed	Different Class Citizens: Understanding the Relationship between Socio-economic Inequality and Voting Abstention
title_sort	different class citizens: understanding the relationship between socio-economic inequality and voting abstention
publisher	Sciendo
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/3a4bc1d58f7b44a5bf4b08cfbb5bfe2d
work_keys_str_mv	AT ehstamara differentclasscitizensunderstandingtherelationshipbetweensocioeconomicinequalityandvotingabstention AT zandonellamartina differentclasscitizensunderstandingtherelationshipbetweensocioeconomicinequalityandvotingabstention
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Different Class Citizens: Understanding the Relationship between Socio-economic Inequality and Voting Abstention

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