[en] Widespread adoption of policies granting electoral rights to citizens living abroad has spurred vivid scholarly debates regarding the drivers and consequences of extra-territorial enfranchisement. But, little is known about the views of resident citizens in origin countries on the matter. We address this research gap and investigate how resident citizens' attitudes to external voting rights are affected by different arguments usually salient in homeland political debates. The study draws on an original survey experiment conducted across five countries (Belgium, Finland, Poland, Portugal and Ireland) with different external voting regulations. Our results show that utilitarian arguments on the costs and benefits of extra-territorial enfranchisement are persuasively shaping public support for the voting rights of nationals living abroad. They further suggest that resident citizens in origin countries that already grant extensive political rights to non-resident nationals are more receptive to moral arguments of democratic inclusion regarding the recognition of such entitlements.
Disciplines :
Political science, public administration & international relations
Author, co-author :
Himmelroos, Staffan ; University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Lafleur, Jean-Michel ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences sociales > Centre d'études de l'ethnicité et des migrations (CEDEM)
Lesinska, Magdalena; University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Liesi, Marco; University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
Peltoniemi, Johanna; University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Reidy, Theresa; University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Vintila, Cristina-Daniela ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Institut de recherche en Sciences Sociales (IRSS) > IRSS: Centre d'Etudes de l'Ethnicité et des Migrations ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences sociales > Centre d'études de l'ethnicité et des migrations (CEDEM) ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences sociales
von Schoultz, Åsa; University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Language :
English
Title :
How framing impacts attitudes about electoral rights for non-resident citizens
The research in this article was carried out as part of the MobilEU project which is funded by the European Union's (Justice Programme (2014–2020)/Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014–2020)). Grant number: 963348. The content of this publication represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.
Atzmüller, C. & Steiner, P. (2010) Experimental vignette studies in survey research. Methodology, 6(3), 128–138.
Bauböck, R. (2007) Stakeholder citizenship and transnational political participation: A normative evaluation of external voting. Fordham Law Review, 75(5), 2393–2447.
Bauböck, R. (2018) Democratic inclusion: a pluralist theory of citizenship. In: Bauböck, R. (Ed.) Democratic inclusion. Rainer Bauböck in dialogue. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 3–102.
Blatter, J., Schmid, S.D. & Blättler, A.C. (2016) Democratic deficits in Europe: the overlooked exclusiveness of nation-states and the positive role of the European union. Journal of Communication and Media Studies, 55(3), 449–467.
Caramani, D. & Grotz, F. (2015) Beyond citizenship and residence? Exploring the extension of voting rights in the age of globalization. Democratization, 22(5), 799–819.
Chaiken, S. (1980) Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(5), 752–766.
Cohen, C. (1971) Democracy. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
CSO. (2020) Information about sizes and time directions emigration from Poland in 2004-2020. Polish central statistical office. Available from: https://stat.gov.pl/obszary-tematyczne/ludnosc/migracje-zagraniczne-ludnosci/glowne-kierunki-emigracji-i-imigracji-na-pobyt-staly-w-latach-1966-2022,4,2.html (in Polish)
Dahl, R. (1970) After the revolution? Authority in a good society. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Dahl, R. (1989) Democracy and its critics. Yale: Yale University Press.
Delli Carpini, M.X. & Keeter, S. (1996) What Americans know about politics and why it matters. Yale: Yale University Press.
Dolowitz, D.P. & Marsh, D. (1996) Who learns what from whom: a review of the policy transfer literature. Political Studies, 44(2), 343–357.
Dolowitz, D.P. & Marsh, D. (2000) Learning from abroad: the role of policy transfer in contemporary policy-making. Governance, 13(1), 5–23.
Escobar, C. (2007) Extraterritorial political rights and dual citizenship in Latin America. Latin American Research Review, 42(3), 43–75.
Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A.G. & Buchner, A. (2007) G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39(2), 175–191. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03193146
Ferrarini, T. (2006). Families, states and labour markets: Institutions, causes and consequences of family policy in post-war welfare states. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Gamlen, A. (2008) The emigration state and the modern geopolitical imagination. Political Geography, 27(8), 840–856.
Goodin, R.E. (2007) Enfranchising all affected interests, and its alternatives. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 35(1), 40–68.
Harkins, S.G. & Petty, R.E. (1981) The multiple source effect in persuasion: the effects of distraction. Personlity and Social Psychology Bulletin, 7(4), 627–635.
Himmelroos, S. & Peltoniemi, J. (2021) External voting rights from a citizen perspective – comparing resident and non-resident citizens' attitudes towards external voting. Scandinavian Political Studies, 44(4), 463–486.
Hochschild, J. (1981) What's fair? Americans' attitudes toward distributive justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Honohan, I. (2011) Should Irish emigrants have votes? external voting in Ireland. Irish Political Studies, 26(4), 545–561.
Hultin Rosenberg, J. & Wejryd, J. (2022) Attitudes toward competing voting-right requirements: evidence from a conjoint experiment. Electoral Studies, 77, 102470. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2022.102470
Iyengar, S. (1991) Is anyone responsible? Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lafleur, J.M. (2013) Transnational politics and the state: the external voting rights of diasporas. London: Routledge.
Lafleur, J.M. (2015) The enfranchisement of citizens abroad: variations and explanations. Democratization, 22(5), 840–860.
López-Guerra, C. (2005) Should Expatriates Vote? The Journal of Political Philosophy, 13, 216–234.
López-Guerra, C. (2014) Democracy and disenfranchisement: The morality of electoral exclusions. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Marietta, M. (2008) From my cold, dead hands: democratic consequences of sacred rhetoric. Journal of Politics, 70(3), 767–779.
Michel, E. & Blatter, J. (2021) Enfranchising immigrants and/or emigrants? Attitudes towards voting rights expansion among sedentary nationals in Europe. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(11), 1935–1954. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1817519
Miller, D. (2009) Democracy's domain. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 37(3), 201–228.
Østergaard-Nielsen, E., Ciornei, I. & Lafleur, J. (2019) Why do parties support emigrant voting rights? European Political Science Review, 11(3), 377–394. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773919000171
Owen, D. (2009) Resident aliens, non-resident citizens and voting rights. In: Calder, G., Cole, P. & Seglow, J. (Eds.) Citizenship acquisition and national belonging. Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 52–73.
Skitka & Mullen. (2002) The dark side of moral conviction. Analysis of Social Issues and Public Policy, 2(1), 35–41.
Sunstein, C. (2000) Cognition and cost-benefit analysis. Legal Studies, 29(2), 1059–1103.
Sunstein, C. (2005) Moral heuristics. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28(4), 531–573.
Svallfors, S. (2013) Government quality, egalitarianism, and attitudes to taxes and social spending: a European comparison. European Political Science Review, 5(3), 363–380. https://doi.org/10.1017/S175577391200015X
Tetlock, P. (2003) Thinking the unthinkable: sacred values and taboo cognitions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(7), 320–324.
Turcu, A. & Urbatsch, R. (2014) Diffusion of diaspora enfranchisement norms: a multinational study. Comparative Political Studies, 48(4), 407–437.
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1981) The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 21(4481), 453–458. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7455683
Tyler, T.R. (2006) Why people obey the law: procedural justice, legitimacy, and complicance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Vintila, D., Lafleur, J.-M. & Nikolic, L. (2021) Report on political participation of mobile EU citizens: Belgium, [Global Governance Programme], GLOBALCIT, Report on Political Participation, 2021/5. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/72559
Zaller, J.R. (1992) The nature and origins of mass opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
