Term limits and voter turnout

This paper studies the impact of binding term limits on voter turnout, analyzing the Portuguese experience at the local government level, where the institutional reform was exogenously imposed by the national parliament. Although instrumental, expressive, and information-based theories of voter part...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor principal: Veiga, Francisco José (author)
Outros Autores: Veiga, Linda Gonçalves (author)
Formato: article
Idioma:eng
Publicado em: 2018
Assuntos:
Texto completo:http://hdl.handle.net/1822/54479
País:Portugal
Oai:oai:repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt:1822/54479
Descrição
Resumo:This paper studies the impact of binding term limits on voter turnout, analyzing the Portuguese experience at the local government level, where the institutional reform was exogenously imposed by the national parliament. Although instrumental, expressive, and information-based theories of voter participation imply effects of term limits on turnout, this is clearly an under-researched topic. Applying a difference-in-differences approach to data at both the municipal and parish levels, we find robust evidence that the presence of term-limited incumbents has a positive impact on voter participation.