WORKING PAPER Lower Voter Turnouts in Europe: Does it really matter? Yalcin Diker yalcin_diker@carleton.ca Dec 10, 2014
Lower Voter Turnouts in Europe: Does it really matter? Introduction Elections are essential for citizen participation, and citizen participation is one of the most important vehicles of democracy because there is a direct link between elections, participation, and democracy. Moravcsik argues that lower and declining voter turnouts could be interpreted as an indication of a democratic deficit within a democratic system (Moravcsik 2002). The EU voter turnout has been declining since 1979 and this is a concern for the EU s democracy (Czesnik 2009) (Guyomarch 2000). Direct relationship between democracy, participation, elections and legitimacy makes this subject an important area of study. The goal of this research paper is to analyze the link between participation and democracy by examining the most popular democracy and participation theories. This paper then uses the theoretical findings to determine what impact lower voter turnout has on the EU democracy. This research paper has two major sections. The first section examines the democracy and participation theories and the link between the two. This section tries to answer questions such as what is participation, why is participation important, how can we measure participation?. The second section analysis the EU s consistently 1
declining voter turnout by using the findings in the first section to determine the probable impact of voter turnout on European democracy. One important pillar of democracy: Participation Dahl argues that democracy is contestation open to participation (Dahil 1971). Merkel carries Dahl s definition a step further and claims that political participation is considered the core of democracy (Merkel 2008, 5) and adds that effective participation level is as important as equality of participation. Merkel also argues that core principles of democracy are: freedom, equality and control and higher level participation which display a higher level in the quality of democracy, and then adds that low turnouts are detrimental to the quality of democracy (Merkel 2011, 10). Some scholars (Czesnik 2009, C.McManus, W.L.Miller et.al 2003) go even further and link voter turnout to democratic legitimacy. Some dated studies claim that elections are not only a necessary but also a sufficient condition for popular selfgovernment (Schumpeter 1942) (Rustow 1970) (Freidrich 1963). Joseph Schumpeter, argues that free elections is to generate increased democratic instruments and institutions such as freedom of media and speech, association, and accountability (Schumpeter 1942) In fact, elections are only one instrument of participation in a democratic system. In addition to elections participation also includes lobbying, public demonstrations, referendums, free and independent media, NGO s etc. No matter what participation methods is used, it is impossible to deny the importance of participation in democracy. Therefore Even though there is no a universally accepted 2
definition of democracy, most popular democracy definitions are based on mass and equal participation besides genuine competition and civil and liberty rights. Some definitions of democracy are written below and the words related to participation are highlighted: [Democracy is] a regime or system of governance in which rulers are held accountable for their actions in the public domain by citizens acting indirectly through the competition and cooperation of their elected representatives. P. S. Schmitter and T. L. Karl [Democracies are characterized by] meaningful and extensive competition among individuals and organized groups (especially political parties) for all effective positions of government [ ]; a highly inclusive level of political participation in the selection of leaders and policies, at least through regular and fair elections [ ]; and a level of civil and political liberties [ ] sufficient to ensure the integrity of political competition and participation. L. Diamond, J. J. Linz, and S. M. Lipset On the input side, government by the people implies that collectively binding decisions should derive from the authentic expression of the preferences of the constituency in question. [ ] On the output side, government for the people implies that collectively binding decisions should serve the common interests of the constituency. F. W. Scharpf [Democracy strives to realize the principle of autonomy, which holds that] persons should enjoy equal rights and [...] equal obligations in the specification of the political framework which generates and limits the opportunities available to them; that is, they should be free and equal in the determination of the conditions of their own lives, as long as they do not deploy this framework to negate the rights of others. D. Held 3
Prof. William M.Reisenger 1 has a similar research and he has put twentyseven popular democracy definitions into five categories to see the intersections of these multiple definitions (Reisinger n.d.). The analysis of Reisinger s table shows that participation is the most common criteria between five categories which is being used in 14 out of 27 definitions. Table 1 Category Used in definition Mass and Equal Participation 14/27 Competition 11/27 Liberty Rights 6/27 Deliberation 4/27 Danger 3/27 As a result, participation is generally considered vital for democracy and a valuable element of a democratic system (Michels 2011). According to Dowse and Hughes, participation is one of the sine-qua-non for democracy (Dowse and Hughes 1986, 266). Since the definition of participation is the action of taking part in something, therefore democratic participation is the action of taking part in a democratic system. Participation as a part of the democratic system has multiple dimensions, different forms, levels and degrees, and these different forms of 1 William M. Reisinger is a professor of political science at the University of Iowa. 4
participation are integrated not only democratic institutions but also economic, social, and cultural systems. One sample linking approaches to participation is shown in Figure 1. Also, different scholars offer different conceptual frameworks for participation. For example Koryakov and Sisk (2003) say that citizen participation types have a wide variety of methods and approaches and can be grouped into four broad categories: Information gathering and sharing, Consultation, Policy formulation and decision making, and Joint implementation (Koryakov and Sisk 2003). According to Gaventa and Valderrama, the participation concept is related to democratic governance and citizenship rights more so than traditional political participation such as voting, political parties, lobbying (Gaventa and Valderrama 1999). 5
Participation methods - horizontal and vertical participation: This paper claims that, participation can be analyzed on the horizontal and vertical dimensions. A graphic to visualize and analyze participation in the horizontal and vertical dimensions has been created as shown in Figure -2. The horizontal axis shows the quantity of participants while the vertical axis shows the participants impact level. Horizontal participation (volume) reflects the quantity (level) of participation, mass societies, stimulating social contact between people (or other democratic identities) and the political system. For example, voter turnouts, number of NGOs, 6
membership frequency in associations and political parties, ratio of social media usage especially for the purpose of social and political related issues, the attendance at demonstrations, politicization of the religious institutions, propaganda, political or policy related advertisements, and pressure groups can also be considered horizontal participation. The vertical participation reflects the quality and the level of participation. Sometimes higher level of participants not necessarily impacts the political system but a small and active group may create an effective impact. For instance, the number of ministers in a government is a very small group but have offer a great amount of influence or voting has a low level impact on the system but being a Prime Minister has the highest level of impact. Similarly, being a sympathizer of a political ideology is a low level participation while working voluntarily for Greenpeace is a high level participation. The graph s data is not limited to citizen participations; it also includes NGO s, pressure groups, professional and other volunteer initiatives. In an advance democracy citizens, mass societies and organizations (labour unions, NGOs, associations etc.) participate in the decision making process before and after the decision is made. Participation does not necessarily mean the approval of the support the decision; participation includes follow up, criticism, objection to the decision etc. Also, citizens and institutions may participate via public demonstrations, mass or social media, pressure groups (lobbies, NGOs, professional organizations), sending letters, forums etc. 7
Also, in a mature democracy, horizontal participation is more important than the vertical participation. The total political participation is shown in the shaded area appearing in Figure-2. Moravcsik claims that a lower turnout shows a democratic deficit; therefore, greater participation should be considered as an improved democracy. democracy? The question is whether larger participation (more politicization) shows a better According to Scicluna the EU had an unsuccessful attempt at democratization via politicization during the last decade (Scicluna 2014). To the contrary, Hix proposes more politicization to overcome institutional gridlock and increase the legitimacy of the EU (HIx 2006). Stefano Bartolini argues that if politicization is a remedy, it might also be worse than disease (Bartoloni 2005). The paper does not intend to address the correlation between politicization and democracy. Greater participation means more politicization (or vise-versa); however, more participation (politicization) does not necessarily mean a better democracy. Low turnouts in European elections and European democracy As mentioned above participation is sine-qua-non for democracy and elections are one of the most important institutions of democratic systems. But elections are not the only one vehicle of citizen participation and furthermore it is also arguable if the elections are the most important instrument of participation. 8
Hence, this paper claims that the importance of the impact of voter turnout levels on democratic legitimacy should not be exaggerated. Figure 2 shows that voter turnout just covers a limited level of participation. Therefore either turnout level reaches 100% or stays around 40%, its impact on democratic participation is limited. Given the above theoretical background, European (or any other democratic country s) voter turnouts has limited impact on the democratic system and its legitimacy. However, this paper definitely doesn t deny the importance of the elections. Elections are the only way for citizens to decide who will represent them and govern the country on their behalf. Demoicracy and participation Scholars studying European Democracy start their research asking questions such as: who is the demos, what is the polity, which democracy, or democracy over what? (Weiler, Haltern and Mayer 1995). It is hard to draw a conceptual framework without answering these questions. As an ad-hoc creature, for the EU, the question of who is the demos? is the primus-interpares of the questions is mentioned above. According to Innerarity, principal European democracy theories agree that Europe doesn t have demos, therefore the absence of people causes the democratic deficit (Innerarity 2014). In fact, the no-demos thesis is widely questioned by both scholars and experts. The central question of this debate is whether it is possible to have a democracy without demos? Some scholars argue that demos (transnational 9
public sphere) is a primary requisite for democracy (Dryzek and Niemeyer 2008, 481), and some others suggest declining demos may cause failures in some EU projects such as the Constitutional Treaty (A. Moravcsik 2006). Kalypto Nicolaidis joins this debate by offering a third way as a reconsideration of the idea of European demoicracy (Nicolaidis 2013). The term Demoicracy was created by Philippe van Parijs and was derived from the ancient Greek words Demoi (peoples) and kratos (power) in 1998. The idea of demoicracy was to be an alternative to democracy in the EU as it does offer multilevel democracy in the EU. It has become popular during debates on European democratization however, institutionalizing the system of demoicracy is threatening the current participatory inequalities among European citizens (Hurrelmann 2014). This paper doesn t intend to discuss the theoretical discussion between democracy and demoicracy. However, if democracy is a polity of people, and demoicracy is a polity of polities; then, the difference between democracy and demoicracy may impact the participation theories and especially the subject of turnouts. Low voter turnouts might be less important in demoicracy than democracy. CONCLUSION This paper first analyzed the links between elections, participation and democracy by examining the democracy and participation theories and then to use the findings to determine the impacts of lower voter turnout on the EU democracy. 10
Participation is one of the most important pillars for democracy and elections are one of the most important instruments of the participation. But neither is participation the only building blocks of democracy nor are elections the only vehicle of the participation. Hence, in this conceptual framework voter turnouts has a limited impact on the democratic system and its legitimacy, therefore the effect of declining voter turnout should not be exaggerated. The term of demoicracy, which offers a multilevel democracy, seems to be a better alternative to democracy in the EU. If so, low voter turnouts may be less important in demoicracy than democracy. REFERENCE LIST Bartoloni, S. Restructuring Europe. Centre formation, system building and political structuring between the nation state and the EU. Oxford: Oxford University., 2005. Dahil, Robert A. Polyarchy. Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University, 1971. Dowse, R. E., and J. A. Hughes. Political Sociology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1986. Dryzek, J. S., and S. Niemeyer. "Discursive Representation." American Political, 2008: 481-493. Gaventa, John, and Camilo Valderrama. "Participation, Citizenship and Local Governance." Institute of Development Studies, 6 21-24, 1999. HIx, S. Why the EU Needs (Left-Right) Politics: Policy reform and Accountability are impossible without it. Working Paper, Paris: Notre Europe, 2006. Hurrelmann, Achim. "Demoi-cratic citizenship in Europe:an impossible ideal?" Journal of European Public Policy, 2014. Innerarity, Daniel. Does Europe Need a Demos to Be Truly Democratic? LEQS Paper, London: London School of Economics and Political science, 2014. 11
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