The widely held assumption that wealthier citizens vote less than poorer ones is challenged in this study.
Diverging Preferences & Fiscal Policy
Contrary to conventional wisdom focused on advanced democracies, the relationship between socioeconomic status and voting turnout varies globally. The key factor is not income inequality itself but how fiscal policy interacts with political preferences.
Using survey data from across developed (e.g., OECD countries) and developing regions (like Latin America), including major datasets like World Values Survey and Afrobarometer, this research demonstrates a crucial finding: the rich vote at higher rates in contexts where their economic interests directly diverge from those of poorer citizens AND state bureaucratic capacity is strong.
This Comparative Analysis reveals that political salience of redistribution and institutional strength shape voting behavior differences.
The study's findings highlight how fiscal exposure motivates engagement differently across socioeconomic groups.
| When Do the Rich Vote Less Than the Poor and Why? Explaining Turnout Inequality Across the World was authored by Kimuli Kasara and Pavithra Suryanarayan. It was published by Wiley in AJPS in 2015. |
