The return of silent elections: democracy, uncontested elections and citizen participation in Czechia
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15210%2F23%3A73620834" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15210/23:73620834 - isvavai.cz</a>
Alternative codes found
RIV/00216208:11210/23:10468521
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2023.2246148" target="_blank" >https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2023.2246148</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2023.2246148" target="_blank" >10.1080/13510347.2023.2246148</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The return of silent elections: democracy, uncontested elections and citizen participation in Czechia
Original language description
Even when robust competition becomes institutionalized for national elections in democracies, this is no guarantee that elections to subnational governments will be equally competitive there. This article documents a recent disconcerting worldwide return of “silent elections'' - electoral races in which citizens are unable to choose among political alternatives and their vote makes no difference to the outcome. Holding such uncontested elections clashes simultaneously with the dual dimensions of democratic government: contestation and inclusiveness. Eliminating any contestation whatsoever not only skews democratic representation but is also expected to have a devastating effect on citizen participation. Leveraging a large dataset of 6,254 Czech municipalities in seven municipal elections between 1998 and 2022, the main contributions of this article are assessing the extent of the problem of silent elections over time, understanding its root causes, estimating its effect on turnout and exploring what mechanisms drive the nexus between uncontested elections and voter participation. The steady rise in the proportion of uncontested races (28% of all municipalities by 2022) as well as their staggering and increasing estimated effect on turnout (17 points relative to contested) point towards a thus far unnoticed deficit of local democracy.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50601 - Political science
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GA20-02098S" target="_blank" >GA20-02098S: Political competition and local democracy in comparative perspective</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Democratization
ISSN
1351-0347
e-ISSN
1743-890X
Volume of the periodical
30
Issue of the periodical within the volume
8
Country of publishing house
GB - UNITED KINGDOM
Number of pages
25
Pages from-to
1527-1551
UT code for WoS article
001052366800001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85168480937