How can rising levels of abstention in national elections be explained?

Résumé du document

With 66.5% participation at the first round of the French municipal elections last month, we notice that the number of voters has slightly diminished since the last municipal elections that took place in 2001 (67.4%) and that those figures come within the scope of the continuous diminution of participation in this type of elections since 1983 (78.3%) and the overall decline of participation in all polls. We can associate the significant rise of these levels of abstention with the beginning of the ?political crisis' at the end of the 1980s, even though the first signs of the abandoning of the polling stations appeared during the presidential elections of 1981.

Extraits

[...] First, as Mathias Bernard shows it in La France de 1981 à 2002[2], more freedom in the diffusion of information gave the media more impact on public opinion, and the revival of investigative journalism (incarnated by Edwy Plenel, working for the newspaper Le Monde) found a wide audience. Political scandals then had more repercussions. It began with L'affaire des Irlandais de Vincennes in 1982, and the bombing of the Rainbow warrior, in 1985. There was also several dysfunctionings in the treatment of sensible cases like the Affaire du sang contaminé that was made public in 1991, even though complaints had been filed from 1988. [...]

[...] This is how when a presidential election is followed by legislative elections, abstention is quite significative: in 1981, there was 18,91% of abstention at the first round of the presidential polls, whereas at the first round of the following legislative polls there was 29,14% of abstention. It was the same thing in 1988 with for the presidential election and 34,26% for the legislative elections. Plus, in 1988 there was also a referendum about the autodetermination of New Caledonia, where abstention rose to 63,10%! [...]

[...] After having reviewed the more basic reasons that can be behind electoral abstention, in this second part we will have a closer look at the developments in French political life since the end of the 1970s that may have had a negative influence on the perception of politics and political staff and thus decreased the attachment of citizens to the act of voting. The growing volatility of the electorate - that was not significant in the first times of the Fifth Republic - can be explained by some of the modifications that appeared after the 1970s in French politics. In the 1980s, changes of prime minister became more frequent, as well as political alternances. This created a diffuse feeling of confusion, compared to the institutional stability of the previous times of the Fifth Republic. [...]

[...] However, high levels of abstention pose a democratic challenge : for example for the constitutional referendum held in 2000 over the reduction of the mandate of the president to five years, the turnout was so low that the majority of 73,21% of ‘yes' votes actually represented only 18% of the registered voters. We can then sadly conclude with the idea that today, because of abstention, we come to question the legitimacy of the representative system, because its democratic base is reduced. Bibliography Books Bernard, Mathias, La France de 1981 à 2002. Le temps des crises ? Le Livre de poche, Paris Bréchon, Pierre, La France aux urnes. [...]

[...] It mainly varies according to the age and the social background of the individuals. Young city dwellers of inmigrant origin, for example, are well above the average rate of unregistered voters. Abstention is directly linked to social integration: if we consider the unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed, they are well above the average of 7 to 10% of registered voters, and abstention levels are also higher than the national average. Young people in general are a social category where abstention is particularly significant. [...]