Pressure on People and People on Streets: Social Pressures to Vote in Tunisia's New Democracy
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Acta Politica
Publication Date
10-31-2023
Abstract/ Summary
Previous literature argues that social pressure during democratic elections motivates citizens to vote. Studies in western democracies find that social pressure is especially ingrained among older generations who possess a deeper sense of civic duty. I test this argument in a new democracy, Tunisia, where citizens of all ages are experiencing democratic elections for the first time. I analyze the results from an original survey that includes an experiment measuring social pressures to vote across generations. The results show that contrary to findings in developed western democracies, Tunisians fail to socially sanction or reward an individual based on voting behavior despite believing that citizens should vote. This finding implies a democratic transition might encourage individuals to ascribe to the norm of voting, but citizens are unlikely to fully internalize this participatory norm in a way that activates and enforces this norm to pressure people to vote. These results speak to the wider generalizability of the impact of civic duty and norm enforcement on voter turnout in nascent democratic contexts.