Compulsory Voting in Latin America: Good or Bad for Democracy?

Authors

Ian Hansen, Brigham Young University
Dr. Darren Hawkins, Brigham Young University

Keywords

compulsory voting, Latin America, democracy

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science

Abstract

Using survey data from across Latin America, I sought to determine whether compulsory voting laws have negative effects on constituents’ views toward democracy. I expected to find that such laws influence voters to have lower appraisals of democracy in their country.

The analysis yielded results that lend significant support to my theory. Controlling for individual demographic variables and the country-level indicators of GDP per capita and GINI Index (which measures economic inequality), it appears that compulsory voting laws do, in fact, have a statistically significant effect on support for and satisfaction with democracy. Further, although the substantive effects are small, the effects appear to be in the direction I expected. The table below presents the regression results:

Recommended Citation

Hansen, Ian and Hawkins, Dr. Darren (2015) "Compulsory Voting in Latin America: Good or Bad for Democracy?," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2015: Iss. 1, Article 28.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2015/iss1/28