Non-voting in the 2018 Romanian referendum: the importance of initiators, campaigning and issue saliency

Gherghina, S. , Racu, A., Giugăl, A., Gavriș, A., Silagadze, N. and Johnston, R. (2020) Non-voting in the 2018 Romanian referendum: the importance of initiators, campaigning and issue saliency. Political Science, 71(3), pp. 193-213. (doi: 10.1080/00323187.2020.1781541)

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Abstract

The requirement of a participation quorum for validity makes non-voting in referendums an important type of voting behaviour. This article seeks to explain non-voting in a referendum where the expectation was to have high turnout but where in reality only few voted, i.e. the 2018 referendum on the topic of same-sex marriage in Romania. Our explanations are inspired by the literature on turnout on elections to which we add several specific features of referendums. We propose three major sets of factors derived from the literature: access to resources, strategic decisions and campaign issues. The analysis relies on 36 semi-structured interviews with individuals aged 18 and above conducted in several urban and rural localities throughout Romania between December 2018 and March 2019.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Gherghina, Dr Sergiu
Authors: Gherghina, S., Racu, A., Giugăl, A., Gavriș, A., Silagadze, N., and Johnston, R.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
Journal Name:Political Science
Publisher:Taylor & Francis
ISSN:0032-3187
ISSN (Online):2041-0611
Published Online:16 July 2020
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2020 The Research Trust of Victoria
First Published:First published in Political Science 71(3):193-213
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

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