None of the Above Protest Voting in Latin American Democracies

• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• ISBN-13: 978-0472056620
• ISBN-13: 978-0472076628
• ISBN-13: mpu-b.12738341
• Thông tin xuất bản: University of Michigan Press, 2024
• Mô tả vật lý: 1 online resource (269 p.)
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 460271
• Chủ đề: 1. Invalid vote, blank vote, spoiled vote, null vote, protest vote, political protest, invalid vote campaign, null vote campaign, blank vote campaign, against-all campaign, none of the above, NOTA, Latin America, Peru, democracy, democratic backsliding, political behavior, elections, voting, voting behavior, WCED, presidential elections, Arequipa, Mexico, election intimidation; 2. Elections & referenda; 3. Politics & government

Tóm tắt

Around the world each year, millions of citizens turn out to vote but leave their ballots empty or spoil them. Increasingly, campaigns have emerged that promote "invalid" votes like these. Why do citizens choose to cast blank and spoiled votes? And how do campaigns mobilizing the invalid vote influence this decision? None of the Above answers these questions using evidence from presidential and gubernatorial elections in eighteen Latin American democracies. Author Mollie J. Cohen draws on a broad range of methods and sources, incorporating data from electoral management bodies, nationally representative surveys, survey experiments, focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and news sources. Contrary to received wisdom, this book shows that most citizens cast blank or spoiled votes in presidential elections on purpose. By participating in invalid vote campaigns, citizens can voice their concerns about low-quality candidates while also expressing a preference for high-quality democracy. Campaigns promoting blank and spoiled votes come about more often, and succeed at higher rates, when incumbent politicians undermine the quality of elections. Surprisingly, invalid vote campaigns can shore up the quality of democracy in the short term. None of the Above shows that swings in blank and spoiled vote rates can serve as a warning about the trajectory of a country's democracy.