Sept/Oct 2013
Neg Counters Other Options
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Can Decrease the Frequency of Elections to positively Influence Turnout, JMR
Lijphart, Arend. Unequal Participation Democracy’s Unresolved Dilemma. The
American Political Science review, Volume 91, Issue 1. March 1997. Pg 6.
The frequency of election has a strongly negative influence on turnout. Noyf (1981, 1986, 1989) has convincingly demonstrated this effect for the United States, in which he estimate that, on average, voters are asked to come to the polls between two and three times each year- much more often than in all except one other democracy. The one country with even more frequent dates on which election and referenda are conducted- about six or seven times per year-is Switzerland (Farago 1995, 121; Franklin 1996, 225, 234). The United States and Switzerland are also the two Western democracies with by far the lowest levels of turnout. The most plausible explanation is voter fatigue (Jackman and Miller 1995, 482-3) or, in terms of rational choice, the fact that frequent election increase the cost of voting. If frequent election depress turnout in first- order election, it is logical to expect that they hurt turnout in second-order elections even more. This maybe the explanation for the wide gap in the United States between the first-order presidential election, on the one hand, and the second- order- but in a system of separation and division of powers still very important- midterm congressional as well as state executive and legislative election on the other.
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