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Voter Turnout at European Elections - A Case Study of the Netherlands and Denmark

Gerrits, Lieke LU (2020) STVM23 20201
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Denmark and the Netherlands both have higher than EU-average turnout for national parliamentary elections. However, for European Parliament elections, Denmark’s turnout is consistently above EU-average, while the Dutch turnout is consistently under the EU-average. In 2019, Danish turnout was 66%, Dutch 41,9%, where the overall turnout in the EU was 50,6%. What explains this difference in otherwise very comparable countries? That is what this study tries to find. Using the rational choice approach and specifically its principle of a cost-benefit analysis, hypotheses were formulated on ‘consideration of importance of the EU’, ‘exposure to campaign’, ‘opinion of EU’ and ‘interest in politics’. Both the Eurobarometer 91.5 and the European... (More)
Denmark and the Netherlands both have higher than EU-average turnout for national parliamentary elections. However, for European Parliament elections, Denmark’s turnout is consistently above EU-average, while the Dutch turnout is consistently under the EU-average. In 2019, Danish turnout was 66%, Dutch 41,9%, where the overall turnout in the EU was 50,6%. What explains this difference in otherwise very comparable countries? That is what this study tries to find. Using the rational choice approach and specifically its principle of a cost-benefit analysis, hypotheses were formulated on ‘consideration of importance of the EU’, ‘exposure to campaign’, ‘opinion of EU’ and ‘interest in politics’. Both the Eurobarometer 91.5 and the European Election Survey 2019 were used to quantitatively analyse the hypotheses. ‘Turnout’ was used as the dependent variable. No relation was found between ‘consideration of importance of the EU’ and ‘turnout’, nor between, ‘opinion of EU’ and ‘turnout. However, a moderately positive relationship was found between ‘exposure to campaign’ and ‘turnout’. Additionally, an interest in politics was found to slightly increase turnout. Lastly, a weak relationship was found between ‘country’ and ‘interest in politics’, with Danish respondents being more interested in politics than Dutch respondents. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Gerrits, Lieke LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVM23 20201
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
European Parliament elections, turnout, Denmark, the Netherlands, rational choice
language
English
id
9026434
date added to LUP
2020-09-21 16:11:08
date last changed
2020-09-21 16:11:08
@misc{9026434,
  abstract     = {{Denmark and the Netherlands both have higher than EU-average turnout for national parliamentary elections. However, for European Parliament elections, Denmark’s turnout is consistently above EU-average, while the Dutch turnout is consistently under the EU-average. In 2019, Danish turnout was 66%, Dutch 41,9%, where the overall turnout in the EU was 50,6%. What explains this difference in otherwise very comparable countries? That is what this study tries to find. Using the rational choice approach and specifically its principle of a cost-benefit analysis, hypotheses were formulated on ‘consideration of importance of the EU’, ‘exposure to campaign’, ‘opinion of EU’ and ‘interest in politics’. Both the Eurobarometer 91.5 and the European Election Survey 2019 were used to quantitatively analyse the hypotheses. ‘Turnout’ was used as the dependent variable. No relation was found between ‘consideration of importance of the EU’ and ‘turnout’, nor between, ‘opinion of EU’ and ‘turnout. However, a moderately positive relationship was found between ‘exposure to campaign’ and ‘turnout’. Additionally, an interest in politics was found to slightly increase turnout. Lastly, a weak relationship was found between ‘country’ and ‘interest in politics’, with Danish respondents being more interested in politics than Dutch respondents.}},
  author       = {{Gerrits, Lieke}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Voter Turnout at European Elections - A Case Study of the Netherlands and Denmark}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}