Periodic Reporting for period 3 - DeVOTE (The meanings of ‘voting’ for ordinary citizens, their causes and consequences)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-01-01 bis 2025-06-30
On Election Day, citizens are usually asked to vote by placing a mark besides one party and/or candidate on a ballot paper. What meanings do citizens attribute to that mark? Frequently it is assumed that citizens share the view that the mark is substantively meaningful. Yet high rates of abstention, rejection of politics as usual, distrust in election administration, and democratic backsliding now challenge this assumption.
Against this background, DeVOTE places citizens’ own views about the meaning of the term ‘voting’ at the very core of the research project. Meaning in this project refers to both the significance of voting as well as what is meant by voting for citizens. The project aims to understand not only (1) what ‘voting’ means for ordinary citizens and (2) to examine the variation of such meanings between individuals and across types of democracies, but also (3) to study how elections create and modify these meanings, (4) to investigate the attitudinal and behavioural consequences of citizens’ meanings and (5) to devise an ‘observatory’ for systematic data collection on the meanings of voting in action on Election Day.
DeVOTE research is both scientifically challenging and practically relevant. As of today, we have theories to explain participation and voting behaviour but we are unable to contribute to public understanding of voting and election outcomes. DeVOTE sets out a new direction of research, aiming to capture and categorize the different meanings citizens may (or may not) have of voting, and, study their systematic variation. To realize its agenda, DeVOTE innovates both in data collection - combining a unique citizen-science website and open-ended enquiry with panel data and survey experiments -, and in data analysis - combining an inductively generated categorization of voting meanings with deductively driven hypotheses testing.
Against this background, DeVOTE places citizens’ own views about the meaning of the term ‘voting’ at the very core of the research project. Meaning in this project refers to both the significance of voting as well as what is meant by voting for citizens. The project aims to understand not only (1) what ‘voting’ means for ordinary citizens and (2) to examine the variation of such meanings between individuals and across types of democracies, but also (3) to study how elections create and modify these meanings, (4) to investigate the attitudinal and behavioural consequences of citizens’ meanings and (5) to devise an ‘observatory’ for systematic data collection on the meanings of voting in action on Election Day.
DeVOTE research is both scientifically challenging and practically relevant. As of today, we have theories to explain participation and voting behaviour but we are unable to contribute to public understanding of voting and election outcomes. DeVOTE sets out a new direction of research, aiming to capture and categorize the different meanings citizens may (or may not) have of voting, and, study their systematic variation. To realize its agenda, DeVOTE innovates both in data collection - combining a unique citizen-science website and open-ended enquiry with panel data and survey experiments -, and in data analysis - combining an inductively generated categorization of voting meanings with deductively driven hypotheses testing.
The DeVOTE project is divided into several work packages.
Work Package 1 (WP1) has two main objectives: first to collect initial, preliminary evidence on meanings as articulated by citizens themselves useful to inform data collection in WPs 2-4, and second to analyse them to find common definitions and patterns useful for initial theory building. On this basis, between August 2021 and October 2021 we have conducted nearly 20 pilot interviews and four focus groups in Vienna (Austria). The findings of the pilot interviews and focus groups were presented in a paper format at the 2022 ISPP General conference in Athens, Greece. Second, we set up a citizen-science website which encourages ordinary citizens to contribute to the scientific objective of DeVOTE by sharing their meanings of voting wherever, whenever and as extensively as they want thus overcoming the typical timing and territorial constraints of electoral surveys.
The aim of Work Package 2 (WP2) is to understand precisely how widespread in the society the meanings identified in WP1 are and identify their systematic variation across individual (group) and/or institutional-level clusters. To this end we have collected cross-sectional survey data in most of the countries holding national elections between January 2022 and May 2023 where it was judged – by the DeVOTE team and country experts – that it was safe and sound to collect data about elections, and voting. These countries are: Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, Serbia, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey and the USA. This major data collection yielded nearly half million words on citizens' meanings of voting. This text data have been coded manually by trained coders and will also be analysed using automated text analysis. Based on this data, several papers are currently being written with most of them have been already presented at international conferences such as 2022 APSA general conference, 2023 EPSA and MPSA general conferences.
Work Package 3 (WP3) deals with the meanings of voting ‘in action’ on Election Day focusing on whether and how meanings are activate and/or modified by election campaigns. In particular, for WP3 we have collected panel data around two key elections held during 2022 namely the general election in Hungary in April 2022 and the mid-term elections held in November 2022 in USA. The same citizens interviewed for WP2 months two months before the election are re-interviewed on the meaning of voting using both open- and closed-ended questions during the election campaign (1-2 weeks before the election) and soon after Election day. Together with panel data, respondents take parts in vignette experiments for greater confidence in studying the direction of causality (i.e. from pre- to post-election meanings). The resulting papers have been presented at the 2022 ECPR general conference winning the ECPR Political Communication Division Best Paper Award.
Work Package (WP4) examines the attitudinal and behavioural consequences of citizen meanings broadly tackling two research questions: (1) do citizen meanings have consequences for citizen preferences and attitudes? and (2) do citizen meanings have consequences for citizen political behaviours? WP4 relies on the panel survey data collected for WP2 and WP3 and specifically designed survey experiments to test for causality. Research in this work package so far has concentrated on studying the broader issue of election integrity and election participation. A paper based on WP4 was presented at the 2022 Election Integrity Project Annual Conference: Challenges of Electoral Integrity Around the Globe.
The project has two more work packages. The primary objective of WP5 is to ensure DeVOTE’s smooth operation. Finally, WP6 ensures that research and recommendations are directly addressed to relevant institutions and organisations, and to the wider public. In this regard, the DeVOTE team has been involved in a variety of activities such as webinars before or following specific election events such as the Hungarian and American elections and a series of invited talks.
Work Package 1 (WP1) has two main objectives: first to collect initial, preliminary evidence on meanings as articulated by citizens themselves useful to inform data collection in WPs 2-4, and second to analyse them to find common definitions and patterns useful for initial theory building. On this basis, between August 2021 and October 2021 we have conducted nearly 20 pilot interviews and four focus groups in Vienna (Austria). The findings of the pilot interviews and focus groups were presented in a paper format at the 2022 ISPP General conference in Athens, Greece. Second, we set up a citizen-science website which encourages ordinary citizens to contribute to the scientific objective of DeVOTE by sharing their meanings of voting wherever, whenever and as extensively as they want thus overcoming the typical timing and territorial constraints of electoral surveys.
The aim of Work Package 2 (WP2) is to understand precisely how widespread in the society the meanings identified in WP1 are and identify their systematic variation across individual (group) and/or institutional-level clusters. To this end we have collected cross-sectional survey data in most of the countries holding national elections between January 2022 and May 2023 where it was judged – by the DeVOTE team and country experts – that it was safe and sound to collect data about elections, and voting. These countries are: Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, Serbia, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey and the USA. This major data collection yielded nearly half million words on citizens' meanings of voting. This text data have been coded manually by trained coders and will also be analysed using automated text analysis. Based on this data, several papers are currently being written with most of them have been already presented at international conferences such as 2022 APSA general conference, 2023 EPSA and MPSA general conferences.
Work Package 3 (WP3) deals with the meanings of voting ‘in action’ on Election Day focusing on whether and how meanings are activate and/or modified by election campaigns. In particular, for WP3 we have collected panel data around two key elections held during 2022 namely the general election in Hungary in April 2022 and the mid-term elections held in November 2022 in USA. The same citizens interviewed for WP2 months two months before the election are re-interviewed on the meaning of voting using both open- and closed-ended questions during the election campaign (1-2 weeks before the election) and soon after Election day. Together with panel data, respondents take parts in vignette experiments for greater confidence in studying the direction of causality (i.e. from pre- to post-election meanings). The resulting papers have been presented at the 2022 ECPR general conference winning the ECPR Political Communication Division Best Paper Award.
Work Package (WP4) examines the attitudinal and behavioural consequences of citizen meanings broadly tackling two research questions: (1) do citizen meanings have consequences for citizen preferences and attitudes? and (2) do citizen meanings have consequences for citizen political behaviours? WP4 relies on the panel survey data collected for WP2 and WP3 and specifically designed survey experiments to test for causality. Research in this work package so far has concentrated on studying the broader issue of election integrity and election participation. A paper based on WP4 was presented at the 2022 Election Integrity Project Annual Conference: Challenges of Electoral Integrity Around the Globe.
The project has two more work packages. The primary objective of WP5 is to ensure DeVOTE’s smooth operation. Finally, WP6 ensures that research and recommendations are directly addressed to relevant institutions and organisations, and to the wider public. In this regard, the DeVOTE team has been involved in a variety of activities such as webinars before or following specific election events such as the Hungarian and American elections and a series of invited talks.
By adopting a radical bottom-up approach that poses citizens’ views at the centre stage of the research, DeVOTE provides brand new evidence on citizen views that can challenge long-standing conclusions in political science about political participation and electoral behaviour, in political psychology about people understanding of and competence with politics, and in political communication about how election narratives structure citizen views. The project has also practical implications on how elections are run and administrated. First, because DeVOTE analyses how citizen meanings relate to their visions of elections and preferences on electoral reforms. Second, because the broad geographical scope of DeVOTE, spanning both consolidated and non-consolidated democracies, offers an unparalleled insight into the legitimizing qualities of elections and afford the opportunity to study under what conditions citizens perceive election choices to be meaningful. Third, the collected data have an unprecedented political significance since they provide a resource containing information about the meanings given to elections by citizens themselves that can be used as a basis to refine and challenge the constructed interpretations commonly assigned to elections by the media and politicians.