Number of Parties, Endogenous Partisan Preferences, and Electoral Turnout Rates

Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of the number of parties on turnout rates within an endogenous partisan preference framework. Our results show that the turnout increases in the number of parties under various levels of individual propensity to abstain. We find strong interactions effects between both motives for abstention—alienation and indifference—and the abstention propensity. The results are based on an agent-based computer simulation of multiparty electoral competition in a two-dimensional policy space.