Who Votes? Implications for New Democracies

To appreciate the quality of new democracies around the world, it is desirable to understand the social dimensions of mass participation. While studies have been done on this subject for established democracies of the North, it is necessary to check results against observations from the developing world. Using unique data from Globalbarometer surveys, we find support for some aspects of conventional wisdom, but evidence that challenges other aspects. For example, we confirm the universality of abstention of youth from participation in elections. But we cannot replicate the truism that persons of higher socioeconomic status tend to vote more frequently. And we add the intriguing new finding that rural folk participate consistently more regularly than their urban counterparts. These social effects are tested against a rival institutional approach and found to be robust. The essay concludes by exploring the implications of the low quality of a mobilized rather than autonomous rural vote for the consolidation of democracy.