破瓜之年,twap.cc,电磁炉不检锅
Using aggregate level data from official sources covering the whole Brong Ahafo region, this study investigates the determinants of voting turnout at the local level elections in Ghana. There is a considerable literature on how and why people vote in elections. Several Studies have used diverse approaches to explain voter turnout. In the comparative literature on electoral turnout a myriad of factors which are believed to explain the differences in people’s participation in elections are found. Following André Blais & AGNIESZKA Dobrzynska (1998:239-261), Kuenzi, M., & Lambright, G. (2007:265-690) and other relevant literature on voter turnout the dominant approaches emphasize socio-economic resources, politcal institutions and politics as well as the political and cultural background as the most important determinants of voter turnout. Although I am not analyzing electoral participation at the individual level but instead focusing on turnout levels in the districts, some of the macro-variables used utilize the arguments put forward by studies at the individual level. Global Studies of Electoral Turnout André Blais & Agnieszka Dobrzynska conducted study on voter turnout in 324 democratic national lower house elections held in 91 countries between 1972 and 1995. Based on their study they distinguished between three blocs of factors that affect turnout namely: (1) socio-economic environment; (2) institutional variables; and (3) party systems. They formulated certain propositions to explain voter turnout variations. These propositions focused on factors such as economic development; degree of illiteracy; population size and density; the presence or absence of compulsory voting; voting age; the electoral system; the closeness of the electoral outcome (competition); and the number of parties. The eight independent variables of Blais & Dobrzynska are explained below with the following sub-themes: Hypothesis and operationalisation. Socio-Economic Environment Economic Development. Hypothesis 1: A considerable level of economic development fosters voter turnout. Argument and operationalisation of economic development: The existing literature (Powell, 1982) suggests that economic development can have major effects on the political involvement of citizens. Economic development promotes the creation and dissemination of socio-economic resources such as access to information and higher education levels and income. Furthermore, economic development transforms the relations among different groups in society, thereby creating a diversity of interests. All of this may well amplify the political involvement of citizens and stimulate voter turnout. In their model, they included the usual indicator of economic development, gross national product per capita. They concluded in their findings that higher economic growth does not foster turnout, so the most important issue that appears to matter is the economic structure and not the economic conjuncture (243). |
