Determinants of electoral turnout in Mexico

Voter turnout in Mexico has called attention of scholars, not only because its relation with the legitimacy of democratic processes, but also for its heterogeneity. Using information from local elections held between 2006 and 2008, we estimated the impact of economic and political conditions on the voting behavior at the municipal level. The results indicate that the degree of marginality exhibits an inverse U-shaped relationship with the voters’ participation. Specifically in municipalities with low deprivation prevails the mobilization hypothesis, whereas in those with high deprivation, predominate the withdrawal hypothesis. Furthermore, we find supportive evidence of the existence of a direct relationship between competitiveness and electoral turnout