Lessons from Aggregate Analysis of Participation in European Parliament Elections: Role of Education and Local Community

1. Lessons from aggregate analysis of participation in European Parliament elections: Compared with elections on other levels of governance, education is more and local community less important in explaining voter turnout Prof. Søren Risbjerg Thomsen Århus University FP6 CivicActive Introduction This poster shows the main results from an aggregate data analysis of voter turnout at different levels of governance in Denmark, Germany and France. The results indicate that education is an important resource in mobilising voters to participate in European politics, while local community is more important in mobilising voters to participate in local politics. Results Aim In interview surveys the respondents may not tell the truth about their participation in elections. This analysis aims at taking advantage of aggregate data - the actual election statistics with true information about the voters political participation. Method Statistical analysis Theory Theoretical model Conclusion In line with expectations, in all three countries education is in general more important in explaining turnout at European elections than at national and local elections, while local community is less important. More information in the report: Søren Risbjerg Thomsen (2008). Comparative aggregate analysis of multilevel turnout. Contact: Søren Risbjerg ThomsenDepartment of political Science, Aarhus University Universitetsparken, DK-8000 Aarhus C srt@ps.au.dk Hypothesis 1: The closer the level of governance is to the national level, the higher the turnout Hypothesis 2: The higher the level of governance the more important competence (level of education) is and the less important community is for turnout