Sept/Oct 2013
Aff: CV Decreases Income Inequality
foundationbriefs.com
Page 37 of 104
CV Influences Policy so that it Decreases Income Inequality JMR
Armin Shafer. Republican Liberty and Compulsory Voting Max Planck Institute for the
Study of Societies. November 2011. Pg 13.
Cross-national studies also show that turnout influences policy outcomes. Hicks and Swank (1992) report that higher turnout leads to higher welfare spending, and Mahler (2008) demonstrates that high-turnout countries redistribute more. Similarly, Mueller and Stratmann (2003) present evidence fora large set of countries that higher rates of electoral participation tend to equalize incomes while at the same time decelerating growth. Looking more specifically at the effects of compulsory voting, Chong and Olivera (2008) are able to show that countries that legally oblige citizens to vote distribute incomes less unequally. In contrast to empirical studies that look at the opinions of voters and nonvoters, these studies suggest that the level of turnout matters and the introduction of compulsory voting would not remain inconsequential. Voters and nonvoters might diverge only slightly in their preferences, but if parties consistently seek to address the median voter rather than the median citizen, these differences could accumulate overtime and translate into different policy outcomes.
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