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"The first thing of interest after an election is usually not the level of turnout, but the result in terms of which party got most of the votes, which parties lost or won votes compared to the last election and what this means for the future government. Only in the more detailed analyses following the elections turnout comes under scrutiny. At least that is true as long as turnout is within the normal range. Against this background some thoughts should be devoted to the question, why a detailed analysis of electoral participation is of relevance. The first reason is derived from the discussions in the theories of democracy. The question of what level of turnout is the optimum for a democratic political system is a normative one as Scharpf points out (Scharpf: 21 ff). While in input-oriented theories a high level of participation is crucial to any democracy and therefore of great interest, output-oriented theories are not so concerned about turnout, as the main task of an election according to them is to generate an authorized government. So at least from an output-oriented point
of view turnout is not of major interest. This discussion shall not be deepened here, however, it gives a good background to think about the relevance of turnout. As so often the truth might lie somewhere in the middle. The level of participation can be taken as an indicator for political as well as societal developments in a democracy, as a point of departure to search for their reasons. In many cases, more than the pure level of turnout, changes in participation rates call attention among the academics and politicians. Especially the latter are more interested in the practical consequences than in theoretical implications of changes in turnout as these might affect their parties' chances and as a consequence their personal political fate. In the case of declining participation the questions are: Do people from all parts of society stay at home to the same extent, which would not change the chances of the parties? Or does the group of new non-voters consist of people with certain socio-demographic characteristics or attitudes who tended to vote for a certain party earlier? Is the decline in turnout a consequence of fading trust in parties and politicians or can it be interpreted as satisfaction with the current political situation?" (excerpt)
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