Voting in the rain: the impact of rain on participation in open-air assemblies |
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Authors: | Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen Marlène Gerber |
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Institution: | 1. Institute of Political Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerlandisabelle.stadelmann@ipw.unibe.ch;3. Institute of Political Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland |
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Abstract: | ABSTRACTThe analysis of how weather conditions influence participation at the ballot and whether bad weather influences ballot decisions has recently gained momentum. This paper analyses the influence of rain on participation in the Landsgemeinde – the main decision-making body of two Swiss cantons, wherein citizens meet on the main square in order to debate and decide bindingly on political matters of all sorts. We rely on a survey with an in-built conjoint experiment that presents citizens with several hypothetical Landsgemeinde situations characterized by randomly varied combinations of weather and other conditions such as outcome favorability, the expected closeness of the vote and the company available during the event. We find that rain not only decreases overall participation but it also lowers participation when votes are expected to be uncontested and for individuals who do not primarily attend the Landsgemeinde for political reasons. |
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Keywords: | Citizen assemblies voting participation political mobilization survey experiment rain |
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