恢复无声选举:捷克的民主、无争议选举和公民参与

IF 3.7 1区社会学 Q1 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Democratization Pub Date : 2023-08-22 DOI:10.1080/13510347.2023.2246148

Karel Kouba, Jakub Lysek

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The return of silent elections: democracy, uncontested elections and citizen participation in Czechia

ABSTRACT Even when robust competition becomes institutionalized for national elections in democracies, this is no guarantee that elections to subnational governments will be equally competitive there. This article documents a recent disconcerting worldwide return of “silent elections'' - electoral races in which citizens are unable to choose among political alternatives and their vote makes no difference to the outcome. Holding such uncontested elections clashes simultaneously with the dual dimensions of democratic government: contestation and inclusiveness. Eliminating any contestation whatsoever not only skews democratic representation but is also expected to have a devastating effect on citizen participation. Leveraging a large dataset of 6,254 Czech municipalities in seven municipal elections between 1998 and 2022, the main contributions of this article are assessing the extent of the problem of silent elections over time, understanding its root causes, estimating its effect on turnout and exploring what mechanisms drive the nexus between uncontested elections and voter participation. The steady rise in the proportion of uncontested races (28% of all municipalities by 2022) as well as their staggering and increasing estimated effect on turnout (17 points relative to contested) point towards a thus far unnoticed deficit of local democracy.

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来源期刊

Democratization POLITICAL SCIENCE-

CiteScore

6.40

自引率

12.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： Democratization aims to promote a better understanding of democratization - defined as the way democratic norms, institutions and practices evolve and are disseminated both within and across national and cultural boundaries. While the focus is on democratization viewed as a process, the journal also builds on the enduring interest in democracy itself and its analysis. The emphasis is contemporary and the approach comparative, with the publication of scholarly contributions about those areas where democratization is currently attracting considerable attention world-wide.