Who votes in the Philippines? determinants of voter participation
Date
2010-10
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Abstract
Voting is one form of letting people exercise their rights as citizens of a country. Although studies have been made attempting to pinpoint the determinants of turnout or voting decision in general, not one focuses on the factors in the Philippines. This study provides an analysis for the determinants of propensity to vote of an individual in the country, where voter turnout had been consistently low compared to other democratic countries. Applying Riker and Odershook's [1995] Theory of Calculus of Voting and several other literature, the researchers identify four factor groups of explanatory variables, namely, individual's attributes, individual's self- assessment of current condition, political factors and group affiliation. Using the 2001 Second Quarter and the 2004 Third Quarter Social Weather Station (SWS) data, the variable whether voted or not in the elections is used as the dependent variable and is regressed using two models. The first model provides a comparison of the magnitudes and inconsistencies of the explanatory variables using the two datasets and the pooled dataset. The second model, an expanded model, includes several explanatory variables focusing on political factors. Using Binary Logit regression analysis, results show that locale, age, educational attainment and political affiliation, being the strongest, affect an individual's propensity to vote. However, results in several wealth factors are inconsistent but bear the same sign with other variables in similar classifications. This led the researchers to recommend policies on voter education and on elections itself. To account for the results of wealth factors, the researchers also recommend addressing issues on income inequality.
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Keywords
Voter, Politics, Voting behavior, Election, Philippine election