Political parties play a pivotal role by mobilizing citizens to participate in the political process. This may be particularly important in new democracies, where party attachments are weak and voter turnout is low. Using data drawn from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), we examine citizens’ reported contact with political parties during a national campaign across a range of democracies. We find that rates of reported contact are lower in new democracies and that on average citizens appear to be less engaged in the political process. Nevertheless, parties in new democracies appear to be more likely to target citizens than in old democracies. Their efforts lead them to be just as successful at stimulating political participation.
Banducci, Susan A. and Jeffrey A. Karp (2001) ‘Mobilizing American Voters: A Reassessment’ . Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Conference of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, CA, USA on 30 August to 2 September.
2.
Barnes, Samuel H. , M. Kent Jennings , Ronald Inglehart and Barbara Farah (1988) ‘Party Identification and Party Closeness in Comparative Perspective’ , Political Behavior10: 215-231 .
3.
Birch, Sarah (2001) ‘Electoral Systems and Party Systems in Europe East and West’ , Perspectives on European Politics and Society2: 35-77 .
4.
Birch, Sarah (2005) ‘Single-member District Electoral Systems and Democratic Transition’ , Electoral Studies24: 281-301 .
5.
Blais, André and Agnieszka Dobrzynska (1998) ‘Turnout in Electoral Democracies’ , European Journal of Political Research33: 239-261 .
6.
Bochel, John M. and David D. Denver (1971) ‘Canvassing, Turnout and Party Support: An Experiment’ , British Journal of Political Science1: 257-269 .
7.
Bochel, John M. and David D. Denver (1972) ‘The Impact of the Campaign on the Results of Local Government Elections’ , British Journal of Political Science2: 239-243 .
8.
Caldeira, Gregory A. , Aage R. Clausen and Samuel C. Patterson (1990) ‘Partisan Mobilization and Electoral Participation’ , Electoral Studies9: 191-204 .
9.
Clarke, Harold D. and Alan C. Acock (1989) ‘National Elections and Political Attitudes: The Case of Political Efficacy’ , British Journal of Political Science19: 551-562 .
10.
Cox, Gary (1999) ‘Electoral Rules and the Calculus of Mobilization’ , Legislative Studies Quarterly3: 387-419 .
11.
Dalton, Russell J. and Steven Weldon (2007) ‘Partisanship and Party System Institutionalization’ , Party Politics13(2): 179-196 (this issue).
12.
Denver, David and Gordon Hands (1974) ‘Marginality and Turnout in British General Elections’ , British Journal of Political Science4: 17-35 .
13.
Denver, David , Gordon Hands and Ian McAllister (2004) ‘The Electoral Impact of Constituency Campaigning in Britain, 1992-2001’ , Political Studies52: 289-306 .
14.
Farrell, David M. (2001) Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction. London and New York: Palgrave .
15.
Farrell, David M. and Paul Webb (2002) ‘Political Parties as Campaign Organizations’, in Russell J. Dalton and Martin P. Wattenberg (eds) Parties without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies, pp. 102-128. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
16.
Finkel, Steven E. (1987) ‘The Effects of Participation on Political Efficacy and Political Support: Evidence from a West German Panel’ , Journal of Politics49: 441-464 .
17.
Fornos, Carolina A. , Timothy J. Power and James C. Garand (2004) ‘Explaining Voter Turnout in Latin America, 1980 to 2000’ , Comparative Political Studies37: 909-940 .
18.
Franklin, Mark N. (2003) Voter Turnout and the Dynamics of Electoral Competition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
19.
Gerber, Alan S. and Donald P. Green (2000) ‘The Effects of Canvassing, Telephone Calls, and Direct Mail on Voter Turnout: A Field Experiment’ , American Political Science Review94: 653-663 .
20.
Goldstein, Kenneth M. and Travis N. Ridout (2002) ‘The Politics of Participation: Mobilization and Turnout over Time’ , Political Behavior24: 3-29 .
21.
Gosnell, Harold F. (1927) Getting-Out-the-Vote: An Experiment in the Stimulation of Voting. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
22.
Huckfeldt, Robert and John Sprague (1992) ‘Political Parties and Electoral Mobilization: Political Structure, Social Structure, and the Party Canvass’ , American Political Science Review86: 70-86 .
23.
Karp, Jeffrey A. and Susan A. Banducci (1999) ‘Political Efficacy and Participation in Nineteen Countries.’ Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Political Science Association, Atlanta, Georgia.
24.
Karp, Jeffrey and Susan Banducci (2004) ‘Political Parties and Party Mobilisation’, in Jack Vowles , Peter Aimer , Susan Banducci , Jeffrey Karp and Raymond Miller (eds) Voters’ Veto: The 2002 Election in New Zealand and the Consolidation of Minority Government, pp. 104-116. Auckland: Auckland University Press .
25.
Karp, Jeffrey A. , Susan A. Banducci and Shaun Bowler (forthcoming) ‘Getting Out the Vote: Party Mobilization in Comparative Perspective’ , British Journal of Political Science, in press.
26.
Karp, Jeffrey A. , Shaun Bowler and Susan A. Banducci (2003) ‘Electoral Systems, Party Mobilization, and Turnout: Evidence from the European Parliamentary Elections’ , British Elections and Parties Review13-13 . London: Frank Cass Publishers .
27.
Karp, Jeffrey A. and David Brockington (2005) ‘Social Desirability and Response Validity: A Comparative Analysis of Over-Reporting Voter Turnout in Five Countries’ , Journal of Politics67: 825-840 .
28.
Kramer, Gerald H. (1970) ‘The Effects of Precinct-Level Canvassing on Voting Behavior’ , Public Opinion Quarterly34: 560-572 .
29.
Kitschelt, Herbert , Zdenka Mansfeldova , Radoslaw Markoswki and Gabor Toka (1999) Post Communist Party Systems: Competition, Representation and Inter-Party Cooperation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
30.
Lijphart, Arend (1999) Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press .
31.
Lipset, Seymour Martin (1994) ‘The Social Requisites of Democracy Revisited’ , American Sociological Review59: 1-22 .
32.
Mainwaring, Scott (1998) ‘Party Systems in the Third Wave’ , Journal of Democracy9: 67-81 .
33.
Mainwaring, Scott (1999) Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wave of Democratization: The Case of Brazil. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press .
34.
Marsh, Michael (2004) ‘None of That Post-Modern Stuff Around Here: Grassroots Campaigning in the 2002 Irish General Election’ , British Elections and Parties Review14-14 . London: Frank Cass Publishers .
35.
Norris, Pippa (2004) Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
36.
Pattie, Charles , Patrick Seyd and Paul Whiteley (2003) ‘Citizenship and Civic Engagement: Attitudes and Behaviour in Britain’ , Political Studies51(3): 443-468 .
37.
Powell, G. Bingham Jr. (1980) ‘Voting Turnout in Thirty Democracies: Partisan, Legal, and Socio-Economic Influences’, in R. Rose (ed.) Electoral Participation: A Comparative Analysis, pp. 5-34. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage .
38.
Powell, G. Bingham Jr. (1986) ‘American Voter Turnout in Comparative Perspective’ , American Political Science Review80: 17-43 .
39.
Rose, Richard (1995) ‘Mobilizing Demobilized Voters in Post-Communist Societies’ , Party Politics1: 549-563 .
40.
Rosenstone, Steven J. and John Mark Hansen (1993) Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. London: Macmillan .
41.
Samuels, David (2001) ‘Money, Elections and Democracy in Brazil’ , Latin American Politics and Society43(2): 27-48 .
42.
Vowles, Jack (2002) ‘Offsetting the PR Effect? Party Mobilization and Turnout Decline in New Zealand, 1996-1999’ , Party Politics8: 587-605 .
43.
Weiner, Myron and Joseph LaPalombara (1966) ‘The Impact of Parties on Political Development’, in J. LaPalombara and M. Weiner (eds) Political Parties and Development, pp. 399-435. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
44.
Whitely, Paul F. and Patrick Seyd (1994) ‘Local Party Campaigning and Electoral Mobilization in Britain’ , Journal of Politics56: 242-252 .
45.
Wielhouwer, Peter W. and Brad Lockerbie (1994) ‘Party Contacting and Political Participation, 1952-90’ , American Journal of Political Science38: 211-229 .
