Comparative Politics Commons^™

Compulsory Voting And Corruption In Latin America, Jonathan Dumdei

Senior Honors Theses

Among modern democracies, compulsory voting (CV) is institutionalized most prevalently in Latin America. Latin American politics have a long, turbulent history, and governments in the region have some of the highest rates of political corruption in the world among democracies, especially electoral fraud. This study investigates the connection between these two phenomena. Secondary empirical quantitative and qualitative research of political and cultural behavior are analyzed according to a rational choice theory decision paradigm. Demographic, experimental, and theoretical data regarding the effects of CV laws are considered in light of possible incentives and disincentives for engaging in vote-buying. This study inductively …