Open Journal of Political Science
2013.
Vol.
3, No.
1, 44-52
Published Online January 2013 in SciRes (http://www.
scirp.
org/journal/ojps) DOI:10.
4236/ojps.
2013.
31007
The End of Voters in Europe? Electoral Turnout in
Europe since WWII
Pascal Delwit...
More
Open Journal of Political Science
2013.
Vol.
3, No.
1, 44-52
Published Online January 2013 in SciRes (http://www.
scirp.
org/journal/ojps) DOI:10.
4236/ojps.
2013.
31007
The End of Voters in Europe? Electoral Turnout in
Europe since WWII
Pascal Delwit
Centre d’étude de la vie politique, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Email: pdelwit@ulb.
ac.
be
Received November 9th
, 2012; revised December 11th
, 2012; accepted December 22nd
, 2012
Over the past twenty years, the scientific community and politicians in consolidated democracies have
been regularly alarmed by political and electoral participation, portrayed as undergoing a brutal and linear
decline.
Each election is now scrutinized in terms not only of its results but also of its level of electoral
turnout.
This paper deals with two important issues—the reality of changes in electoral turnout in Europe
and the impact of the institutional constraint of compulsory voting in voter turnout levels—through an
analysis of 4
Less
