Journal
BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
Volume 48, Issue 1, Pages 189-211Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0007123416000168
Keywords
voter turnout; field experiment; mobilization; political sophistication; compulsory voting; mandatory voting
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Funding
- National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant [1065771]
- Rita Mae Kelly Endowment Fellowship
- New York University Center for Experimental Social Science
- Wilf Family Department of Politics at New York University
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie
- Divn Of Social and Economic Sciences [1065771] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Because non-voters are less politically informed than voters, some propose that increasing voter turnout would reduce the quality of information among the active voting population, damaging electoral outcomes. However, the proposed tradeoff between increased participation and informed participation is a false dichotomy. This article demonstrates that political information is endogenous to participation. A field experiment integrates an intensive mobilization treatment into a panel survey conducted before and after a city-wide election. Subjects who were mobilized to vote also became more informed about the content of the election. The results suggest institutions that encourage participation not only increase voter turnout - mobilizing electoral participation also motivates citizens to become more politically informed.
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