CIAO DATE: 09/2013
March 2013
Global Political Trends Center
Elections are central elements of democratic systems as they provide the public with the opportu nity – with some restrictions established by legal arrangements such as quotas – to make their voices heard. In other words, it is through election results that we learn a great deal about the social and political circumstances in a country. This paper follows the electoral trends in European countries since the beginning of the 1990s as far as the data makes it possible. In order to create a comprehensive analysis, turnout rates, voter preferences and other major determinants shaping preferences – whether influential economic or identity factors – are considered. Europe is defined, in this research, as all of the EU member states, making a highly complicated and heterogeneous collection. As the trends in these different countries can be expected to diverge, a regional comparison between Western, Northern, S outhern and Eastern Europe is provided so that the similar and different electoral trends in these regions are presented clearly.
Resource link: Avrupa'da Seçmen Davranışı: Bölgesel Farklılıkların Önemi [PDF] - 348K