Closing the ethnic turnout gap?: inclusive enfranchisement and political participation of immigrants in advanced democracies

Author(s) : Anna-Lena Nadler, Elif Naz Kayran

Source : https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:149198

Abstract:

“Can inclusive voting rights laws close the turnout gap between immigrant and native voters? While increasingly common, there are few studies on the political consequences of alien enfranchisement. Here, we examine the impact of electoral inclusivity on the political incorporation and participation of ethnic voters. Focusing on Switzerland, we use high-quality household panel data (SHP) from 1999 to 2015 leveraging both longitudinal and municipal level variation of enfranchisement laws. In the first part, we investigate whether ethnic voters constitute a distinct political group with systematically different attitudes towards sharing rights with non-citizens. In the second part, we show that naturalised immigrants turn out at higher rates if they live in municipalities where alien enfranchisement laws are introduced. We link this participation boost to closure of ethnic turnout gaps in the affected municipalities. Our analysis adds significantly to existing theoretical explanations and empirical evidence on electoral participation in multi-ethnic diverse democratic societies.”