Political Engagement, Media, or Satisfaction? Finding Determinants of Voter Turnout in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Many democracies across the world are experiencing issues with declining voter turnout, and the Czech Republic is not exempt to this trend. Over the past 30 years, turnout has decreased in this country by almost 20 percentage points. The aim of this research is to identify the determinants that mobilize (or demobilize) citizens to vote in the context of the Czech political environment and to describe the relationships between them. Specifically, we focus on the mobilizing effect of political engagement, mainstream and alternative media, and citizen satisfaction in various aspects of life. The research is based on the responses of a representative sample of respondents (N = 807) and uses structural equation modelling to analyse the responses. Our results show that of all the determinants examined, turnout is particularly influenced by citizens' political engagement. Surprisingly, consumption of mainstream and alternative media content, and citizen satisfaction are not shown to mobilize citizens to vote. However, these determinants have been shown to be significantly related to political engagement and it can be suggested that political engagement is a mediating variable. Thus, we show that it is appropriate to pay attention not only to the direct effects of individual determinants on turnout when examining the determinants of turnout, but also to examine decision-making processes in a broader context.