Participation politique et origines nationales : une analyse de la mobilisation électorale dans une ville populaire en Suisse

Turnout rates in Switzerland have been decreasing for several decades, just like in the rest of the Europe. National individual-level surveys are still the predominant tool of analysis used by political scientists for explaining this phenomenon. Despite the interesting findings that survey research has yielded, this line of research is not without shortcomings. Most notably, survey research systematically underestimates abstention, due to survey response biases and social desirability biases. The aim of this article is to investigate turnout rates from a local and concrete perspective. Drawing upon ethnographic material and local electoral register data, I analyze turnout on the basis of two distinct models: on the one hand an explanation that focuses on individuals’ demographic characteristics, and on the other hand one that is concerned with contextual effects. Firstly, I compare levels of turnout among voters of different national origin, and explain these participation differentials by looking at the immigration history of the town studied. Secondly, I show that the social ties of electors and the political activities of community leaders matter for explaining turnout rates