Compulsory voting and political sophistication: A multilevel analysis of the relationship between the legal obligation to participate in elections and individual levels of political interest, knowledge and ideological understanding

Abstract

This thesis investigates the relationship between compulsory voting and political sophistication. Political sophistication is defined as a concept consisting of three aspects: political interest, factual political knowledge and ideological understanding of politics. The research question is twofold: Does compulsory voting correspond with higher levels of political sophistication? And, is the effect of the strongest predictor of political sophistication, namely education, contingent on compulsory voting? To answer these questions, multilevel analyses of data on 41 countries and 69,301 individuals from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (module 3) is performed. This study finds that there is a positive effect of compulsory voting on all three aspects of political sophistication. Moreover, it finds that compulsory voting does not offset the strong effect of education. The effect of education on political interest and knowledge is rather stronger in compulsory voting countries than in voluntary voting countries. This suggests that Lijphart’s (1997) argument that compulsory voting enhances political equality is questionable.