Sukupolviefekti äänestämisessä: mittaamiseen ja selittämiseen liittyviä kysymyksiä

Authors

• Hanna Wass

Abstract

A generational explanation is one the most promising approaches in examining the decline in turnout that many Western countries have witnessed during the past few decades. Some recent studies have shown that there is a clear generational effect in voting along with life cycle and period effects. This article discusses the problems concerning the empirical modelling of these three time-related variables, i.e. multicollinearity, and some possible factors behind the differences in turnout between various generations. In order to explain a generational effect, three different explanatory models are being introduced: a Mannheimian theory of generations and the impact of key experiences in particular; generational differences in political socialization process; and the effect of younger enfranchisement. However, in the concluding part of the article it has been suggested that the reason for the generational differences in turnout should also be searched in the different ways of understanding the concept of representation. It might be the case that younger generations find the whole idea of representation – at least in the sense of the superiority of the representative over the represented – less appealing than their predessors due to their sense of a larger political competence and the willingness to participate in more concreate ways than voting.