“Is voting even effective?” Examining voting and protest as an expression of dissent and their efficacy in risky contexts

Abstract

In the current contribution, we aim to examine how the political efficacy of different actions is understood in authoritarian contexts and, in particular, whether protest and voting are viewed as an efficacious way to engage in the political process among opposition members. We used an online survey (N = 152), asked open-ended questions about (1) motivators for voting, (2) reasons for not voting/indecisiveness, opinions on (3) voting, (4) offline protests, and (5) online protests to make voices heard and analyzed the data using qualitative content analysis. Results highlighted the motivators behind voting, such as opposing the current government, hope for change, and seeing it as a civic duty, while hopelessness/lack of faith in change and lack of representative candidates were barriers to civic participation. While some saw voting as ineffective in competitive authoritarian contexts like Turkey, others perceived it as a way for people to make their voices heard. Last, the difference between offline and online protests regarding making one's voice heard was stark: Offline protests were described as necessary yet very dangerous, whereas online protests were seen as mostly effective. We discuss these different actions’ political efficacy and civic participation challenges in authoritarian contexts, especially among opposition members.