Dam, Marlisha (2026) Identifying the Key Determinants of Non-Voting in Dutch Municipal Council elections and Targeted Interventions. Bachelor thesis, Global Responsibility & Leadership (GRL).
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Abstract
Over the past decades, voter turnout in Dutch municipal elections has declined, raising concerns about the legitimacy of local democracy. This thesis examines the determinants of local non-voting in the Netherlands and identifies the factors most relevant for designing interventions. Using a qualitative literature review with manual coding, existing literature is analyzed within a micro-, meso-, and macro-level framework. At the micro-level, individual characteristics such as age, education, income, political interest and perceived political efficacy shape voting decisions. At the meso-level, factors including municipal size, social capital and the clarity of municipal responsibilities affect turnout. At the macro-level, institutional determinants like multilevel governance, electoral cycles, and municipal amalgamations are found to determine local turnout. The findings show that many determinants belong to broader mechanisms that either have a withdrawal or mobilization effect on local turnout. Based on these, interventions are designed that either increase mobilization, such as personalized campaigns and increased usage of social networking sites (SNS), or reduce withdrawal, such as strategic electoral timing.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Name supervisor: | Papakonstantinou, M.A. |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Jun 2026 10:31 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Jun 2026 10:31 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/837 |
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