Electoral participation in national, state and local elections in Brazil (1998 - 2020)

Abstract:

We analyze participation in Brazilian elections during the last two decades (1998 to 2020). Initially, we review the international and national literature on electoral participation. We separate four approaches focusing on voters, political leadership, institutional factors and the ecological context of the election. In the case of Brazil, there is a long tradition of research about electoral participation and its meaning. However, these studies mainly focus on turnout at the national and state level. Studies on participation in municipal elections are rare. The analysis of the empirical data is divided into two parts. In the first part we compare turnout and valid votes in national, state and local elections. We find that participation in local elections is higher compared to other levels of government, contradicting the assumption in the international literature that local elections are second-order elections. We then analyze the impact of the demographic composition and ecological characteristics of municipalities on participation. We conclude that the size of municipalities is the factor that most influences electoral participation. Participation in smaller municipalities is higher than in large cities. This result suggests research that furthers our understanding of the impact of population size on the pattern of electoral behavior.

Keywords:
Brazil; elections; turnout; federalism; municipalities