Disproportionality, turnout, and the Spanish case: another piece for the puzzle

The research on the factors that incentivise participation appears to form a puzzle within Political Science. This article addresses a more specific issue, the relationship between the disproportionality of electoral systems and voter turnout. The most established hypothesis assumes a positive relat...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Urdánoz Ganuza, Jorge, Urquizu, Ignacio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universidad Pública de Navarra
Repositorio:Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarra
OAI Identifier:oai:academica-e.unavarra.es:2454/54608
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2454/54608
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Participation
Disproportionality
Turnout
Electoral systems
Representation
Descripción
Sumario:The research on the factors that incentivise participation appears to form a puzzle within Political Science. This article addresses a more specific issue, the relationship between the disproportionality of electoral systems and voter turnout. The most established hypothesis assumes a positive relationship between proportionality and electoral participation. This hypothesis seems to have been confirmed for industrialised countries with advanced democracies. We test this hypothesis using the case of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, one of such democracies. The Spanish case offers methodological advantages that make it ideal for isolating the impact of the examined variable. However, the hypothesis is not confirmed, adding another piece to a puzzle that apparently is not resolved in the literature.