Abstract
This article contends that an important driver of turnout is the national stories embraced by citizens. We suggest the notion of ‘story incentive,’ whereby adopting a group’s story components – those that connect the past, the future, and prominent national characters – motivates individuals to participate in that group’s political activities. Leaning on narrative theories and studies on voter turnout, we develop and test hypotheses regarding the effect of story components on the likelihood of voting. Our measurements of story incentives are based on election surveys and encompass Denmark, Israel, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US. The results support the main story-incentive hypothesis. We discuss the theoretical ramifications of the connection between adherence to national stories and voter turnout.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 249-264 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | European Political Science Review |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 18 Dec 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2021 |
Funding
This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1400/14) and Danish Council for Independent Research (FSE) (Grant No. 0602-02106B). The authors would like to thank James Stanyer, Yaron Ezrahi, Pazit Ben-Nun Blum, the editors of European Political Science Review and four anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments and suggestions.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Natur og Univers, Det Frie Forskningsråd | |
| Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Manchester | 0602-02106B |
| Israel Science Foundation | 1400/14 |
Keywords
- narrative theory
- national stories
- voting behavior
- turnout
