ARTURO MALDONADO. Dissertation: Beyond Turnout: Origins and Behavioral Effects of Compulsory Voting in Latin America

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1 ARTURO MALDONADO 230 Appleton Place Nashville, TN USA Skype: arturo.maldonado Web: Home Address Calle Alcanfores 250, Dpto 1101 Miraflores, Lima - Peru Phone: (+511) EDUCATION Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, (Expected April 2015) Fields of Research: Comparative Politics and Research Methods Dissertation: Beyond Turnout: Origins and Behavioral Effects of Compulsory Voting in Latin America Abstract: Compulsory voting is a trademark in Latin America. This region has more countries implemented it and more citizens under this electoral rule than any other region in the world. Going beyond its direct effect of increasing turnout, this dissertation answers three questions: (1) how legislators decided to implement compulsory voting in some Latin American countries and why they did not in others; (2) how laws governing whether voting is compulsory change the weight of each constituent element of the decision to go to the polls; and (3) taking insights from the literature on psychology about the relationship between incentives and the intrinsic motivation to perform an activity, how compulsory voting, with its related threat of punishment for non-compliance, undermines citizens sense of civic duty. Generally speaking, I find that a convincing relationship emerges between rules and institutions and citizens political behavior tendencies. My dissertation suggests that those who see compulsory voting as a remedy for low levels of turnout have not sufficiently considered its side effects. A key finding in my dissertation is that enforced compulsory voting undermines citizens intrinsic motivation to turn out to vote, which I operationalize as civic duty. A declining motivation in compulsory voting systems is unwanted because it may mask a faulty democracy as a healthy one. As a result, high levels of electoral participation would not indicate engaged citizens, but coerced citizens, who, according to these findings, are more likely to be disengaged about the electoral process and the democratic system. Committee: Mitchell A. Seligson (co-chair), Elizabeth J. Zechmeister (co-chair), Cindy D. Kam, Jonathan Hiskey, and André Blais (Université de Montréal) Master of Arts (2012), Department of Political Science, B.A. (2001) Sociology, Department of Social Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

2 APPOINTMENTS, Department of Political Science Research Assistant, Latin American Public Opinion Project, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Department of Social Sciences Political Science. Lima, Peru Visiting Faculty Member and Instructor, August 2014 Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Public Opinion Institute Staff and Researcher, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Center of Social, Economic, Political, and Anthropological Research Researcher, PUBLISHED WORK Maldonado, Arturo and Mitchell A. Seligson Trust in Elections in the Americas: in Advancing Electoral Integrity, Norris, Pippa, Richard W. Frank, and Ferran Martinez i Coma (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. WORKING PAPERS The Morning After: Does Voting for Losing Candidates or Parties Lead to Exit or Voice? (co-authored with Mitchell A. Seligson). Public Opinion, Terrorist Threat, and Democracy in Contemporary Peru (co-authored with Jennifer L. Merolla, and Elizabeth J. Zechmeister). Close Elections and Authoritarianism in U.S. Presidential Elections. Who Consumes News Media in Latin America and the Caribbean RESEARCH REPORTS Maldonado, Arturo When Voting is Compulsory, Who Opposes it? Evidence from Ecuador and Peru. Insights Series No Nashville: Latin American Public Opinion Project,. 2

3 Maldonado, Arturo Who Consumes News Media in Latin America and the Caribbean. Insights Series No. 70. Nashville: Latin American Public Opinion Project,. Maldonado, Arturo Compulsory Voting and the Decision to Vote Insights Series No. 63. Nashville: Latin American Public Opinion Project,. Maldonado, Arturo What Determines Trust in the Supreme Court. Insights Series No. 54. Nashville: Latin American Public Opinion Project.. Maldonado, Arturo Insecurities Intensify Support for Those Who Seek to Remove Government by Force Insights Series No. 48. Nashville: Latin American Public Opinion Project,. GRANTS AND AWARDS RIPS Small Grant for Experimental Research given by the Research on Individuals, Politics, and Society at the Department of Political Science, Summer Training Award given by the Department of Political Science at for attending the ICPSR Summer Program Prestage Cook Award given by the Southern Political Science Association Graduate Student Travel Grant given by the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University Graduate Student Council Travel Grant given by the Graduate Student Council at Vanderbilt University Tinker Grant for Summer Research given by the Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt University CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS The Morning After: Does Voting for Losing Candidates or Parties Lead to Exit or Voice? Prepared for the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington D.C. (co-authored with Mitchell A. Seligson). The Side Effects of Compulsory Voting of Citizens Sense of Duty. Prepared for the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, ILL. 3

4 Shifting Rationales: The Effect of Compulsory Voting Laws on Voter Turnout Decisions. Prepared for the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, New Orleans, LA. INVITED PRESENTATION Winners, Losers and Trust in Elections in 24 Nations in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Analysis using the AmericasBarometer Prepared for the Second Annual Workshop of the Electoral Integrity Project, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, June (co-authored with Mitchell A. Seligson). RESEARCH EXPERIENCE Training of supervisors and interviewers for LAPOP El Salvador, 2014; Colombia, Fieldwork in Bogotá, Colombia for dissertation Collected interviews for a survey experiment with university students, Fieldwork in Lima, Peru for dissertation Research in the Peruvian National Congress Archives, Implementation and supervision of representative survey in Lima, 2012., Department of Political Science for Professor Kristin Michelitch Research Assistant for the project Electoral Cycle Fluctuations in Partisanship Intensity: Global Evidence, Spring and Summer TEACHING EXPERIENCE Instructor for undergraduate course at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú Electoral Behavior, 2014 Research Methods in Political Science, Statistics for Political Analysis, 2008 Contemporary Political Theory, 2007 Comparative Political Analysis, 2008 ADDITIONAL METHODOLOGICAL TRAINING ICPSR Summer Program, Courses completed: Applied Multilevel Models (STATA), Causal Inference, and R Lab. 4

5 DRC Capacity Building Programme Research Training Workshops, the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom, Diploma of Applied Statistics, Department of Sciences and Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru, PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Manuscript Reviewer for the American Journal of Political Science. Member of the American Political Science Association (APSA), the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA), the Southern Political Science Association (SPSA), the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), and the Asociación Latinoamericana de Ciencia Política (ALACIP). Delegate of the Association of Sociology Students, at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. LANGUAGES AND OTHER SKILLS Spanish (native) and English (fluent) Technical skills: STATA, SPSS, R, Qualtrics REFERENCES Mitchell A. Seligson Centennial Professor of Political Science and Founder and Senior Advisor of the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) PMB 0505, 230 Appleton Place Nashville, TN Elizabeth J. Zechmeister Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) Faculty Affiliate, Research on Individuals, Politics & Society Lab 344 Commons Center Nashville, TN Jonathan Hiskey Cindy D. Kam 5

6 Associate Professor of Political Science 339 Commons Nashville, TN Senior Associate Dean for Faculty, College of Arts & Sciences Arts & Science Dean s Office 301 Kirkland Hall Nashville, TN cindy.d.kam@vanderbilt.edu 6