Economic crisis led Irish voters to think on a national level

The Irish electorate’s sense of duty when it came to voting in the 2011 general election was not diminished by the impact of the economic crisis on their lives, a new study has found.

According to the study, the economic crisis and the Troika bailout made Irish voters more inclined to think in national terms and delivered a result where local factors were less influential.

According to Dr Theresa Reidy of the Department of Government at University College Cork, the 2011 general election took place at time of great political turmoil and deep economic crisis.

The election produced "an electoral earthquake" according to Dr Reidy who carried out the research with Prof André Blais and Dr Carol Galais from the Universite de Montreal in Canada.

According to Dr Reidy, one of the questions that she and her fellow researchers looked at was whether a harsh economic recession affects not just the election result but also the act of voting.

“The issue is whether a worsening of one’s economic circumstances induces citizens to focus on their own personal interests rather than those of the larger community,” said Dr Reidy.

The authors noted that turnout in Irish elections used to be around 75 per cent in the 1960s and 1970s but dropped by about 10 per cent to reach 63 per cent in 2002 before rising to 67 per cent in 2007 and 70 per cent in 2011.

“There may be many causes for the downward trend that started in the 1980s but the slight increase observed in 2011 suggests the economic crisis did not discourage citizens from voting.”

Studies had found that while a high incidence of local candidates led to higher turnout rates between 1997 and 2002, this tendency was weakened in the 2011 general election, say the authors.

They suggest in their paper “In the Line of Duty: The moral basis of turnout in the 2011 Irish Election that “people may have turned out to vote in 2011 to defend the sovereignty of their country”

“Citizens, who believe that voting is a moral obligation, have a higher probability of voting – by 18 points – over those who see voting as a choice,” noted the authors.

“Consistent with previous research on turnout at Irish elections, the findings confirm the propensity to vote increases with age, education and income level,” they found.

Dr Reidy and her colleagues presented their findings at the Political Studies Association of Ireland Annual Conference hosted by the Dept of Government at University College Cork.