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Why Bother? S Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47522-8 — Why Bother? S. Erdem Aytaç , Susan C. Stokes Frontmatter More Information Why Bother? Why do vote-suppression efforts sometimes fail? Why does police repression of demonstrators sometimes turn localized protests into massive, national movements? How do politicians and activists manip- ulate people’s emotions to get them involved? The authors of Why Bother? offer a new theory of why people take part in collective action in politics and test it in the contexts of voting and protesting. They develop the idea that just as there are costs of participation in poli- tics, there are also costs of abstention – intrinsic and psychological but no less real for that. That abstention can be psychically costly helps explain real-world patterns that are anomalies for existing theories, such as that sometimes increases in costs of participation are followed by more participation, not less. The book draws on a wealth of survey data, interviews, and experimental results from a range of countries, including the United States, Britain, Brazil, Sweden, and Turkey. S. Erdem Aytaç is an assistant professor in the Department of Interna- tional Relations at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 2014. Aytaç’s research interests lie in political behavior with a focus on democratic account- ability and political participation. His previous work has appeared in the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Behavior, British Jour- nal of Political Science, Political Behavior, and the Journal of Conflict Resolution, among other journals. He is the recipient of the 2016 Young Scientist Award of Science Academy (Turkey) and the 2018 Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award. Susan C. Stokes is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Ser- vice Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and past chair of the Yale Political Science Department. She is the author of Mandates and Democracy: Neoliberalism by Surprise in Latin America (Cam- bridge) and co-author of Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism: The Puzzle of Distributive Politics (Cambridge). © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47522-8 — Why Bother? S. Erdem Aytaç , Susan C. Stokes Frontmatter More Information Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics General Editors Kathleen Thelen Massachusetts Institute of Technology Erik Wibbels Duke University Associate Editors Catherine Boone London School of Economics Thad Dunning University of California, Berkeley Anna Grzymala-Busse Stanford University Torben Iversen Harvard University Stathis Kalyvas Yale University Margaret Levi Stanford University Helen Milner Princeton University Frances Rosenbluth Yale University Susan Stokes University of Chicago Tariq Thachil Vanderbilt University Series Founder Peter Lange Duke University Other Books in the Series Christopher Adolph, Bankers, Bureaucrats, and Central Bank Politics: The Myth of Neutrality Michael Albertus, Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform Santiago Anria, When Movements Become Parties: The Bolivian MAS in Comparative Perspective BenW.Ansell,From the Ballot to the Blackboard: The Redistributive Political Economy of Education Ben W. Ansell, David J. Samuels, Inequality and Democratization: An Elite-Competition Approach Leonardo R. Arriola, Multi-Ethnic Coalitions in Africa: Business Financing of Opposition Election Campaigns David Austen-Smith, Jeffry A. Frieden, Miriam A. Golden, Karl Ove Moene, and Adam Przeworski, eds., Selected Works of Michael Wallerstein: The Political Economy of Inequality, Unions, and Social Democracy Andy Baker, The Market and the Masses in Latin America: Policy Reform and Consumption in Liberalizing Economies Continued after the index © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47522-8 — Why Bother? S. Erdem Aytaç , Susan C. Stokes Frontmatter More Information Why Bother? Rethinking Participation in Elections and Protests S. ERDEM AYTAÇ Koç University SUSAN C. STOKES University of Chicago © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47522-8 — Why Bother? S. Erdem Aytaç , Susan C. Stokes Frontmatter More Information University Printing House, Cambridge CB28BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06–04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108475228 DOI: 10.1017/9781108690416 c S. Erdem Aytaç and Susan C. Stokes 2019 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2019 Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Inc. A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Aytaç, S. Erdem, 1980– author. | Stokes, Susan Carol, author. Title: Why bother? : rethinking participation in elections and protests / S. Erdem Aytaç, Koç University, Susan C. Stokes, University of Chicago. Description: New York : Cambridge University Press, [2018] | Series: Cambridge studies in comparative politics | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identiers: LCCN 2018035529 | ISBN 9781108475228 Subjects: LCSH: Political participation. | Voter turnout. | Voting – Abstention. | Voting research. | Protest movements – Political aspects. Classication: LCC JF799 .A93 2018 | DDC 323/.042–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018035529 ISBN 978-1-108-47522-8 Hardback ISBN 978-1-108-46594-6 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLS for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47522-8 — Why Bother? S. Erdem Aytaç , Susan C. Stokes Frontmatter More Information Erdem: For my family. Susan: For Lewyn and Arlo, future participants. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47522-8 — Why Bother? S. Erdem Aytaç , Susan C. Stokes Frontmatter More Information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47522-8 — Why Bother? S. Erdem Aytaç , Susan C. Stokes Frontmatter More Information Contents List of Figures page viii List of Tables ix Preface and Acknowledgments xi 1 Introduction: Rethinking Political Participation 1 2 Theories of Voter Participation: A Review and a New Approach 13 3 Testing the Costly Abstention Theory of Turnout 37 4 Theories of Protest Participation: A Review and a New Approach 68 5 Testing the Costly Abstention Theory of Protest Participation 83 6 The Emotional Origins of Collective Action 103 7 Conclusions: Criticisms, Extensions, and Democratic Theory 128 Bibliography 137 Index 150 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47522-8 — Why Bother? S. Erdem Aytaç , Susan C. Stokes Frontmatter More Information Figures 3.1 Turnout in the US presidential and midterm congressional elections, 1960–2016 page 39 3.2 Respondents’ assessments of chances for a presidential tie in the United States 43 3.3 Distribution of responses to the outcome question in the Turnout experiment 49 3.4 The average likelihood of voting across treatment conditions in the Turnout experiment 50 3.5 Negative affect emotions across experimental groups in the Abstention experiment 55 3.6 Negative affect emotions across experimental groups in the (Important, Close) election group of the Abstention experiment 56 3.7 The average likelihood of voting across treatment conditions, unweighted and weighted data 66 3.8 Negative affect emotions across experimental groups in the Abstention experiment, weighted data 67 4.1 The impact of repression on the costs of abstention and participation 81 6.1 Bounce-back effect among the unemployed in the United States 105 6.2 Unemployment rate and proportion of economy-related words in presidential challengers’ nomination acceptance speeches in the United States, 1976–2016 107 6.3 Istanbul 2015 survey: images used in the Repression treatment 116 viii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47522-8 — Why Bother? S. Erdem Aytaç , Susan C. Stokes Frontmatter More Information Tables 2.1 Correlates of turnout in Britain and Sweden – BES and SNES 2010 page 15 3.1 Setup of the Turnout experiment 49 3.2 Treatment vignettes in the Abstention experiment 53 3.3 Experimental conditions and vignettes in the Duty experiment 58 3.4 Manipulation checks for the Duty experiment 59 3.5 Average treatment
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