The impact of voter ID laws on turnout and political engagement: An International Study

本研究旨在发展我们对选民身份法如何影响选民投票率以及人们在总体和个人层面上对选举诚信的态度的理解。我们目前对这个话题的了解大多来自美国的文献。此外，文献对法律的作用缺乏共识。本研究将扩大狭窄的文献，并解决其中的争论。我将在这项工作的基础上，分析大量的民主国家，在国家和个人层面上反复观察。本研究将包含三个核心主题：1。现行法律与投票率的关系法律的变化对投票率和态度的影响。这些将有助于指导和集中一系列相互关联的研究问题，这将使用混合方法方法，因为大n和案例研究将结合起来，从而创建一个嵌套的设计。该研究将解决三个主要问题：1。选民身份法对投票率和政治参与有什么影响？它总是负的吗？这种影响在不同的选民群体（例如少数民族和年轻人）之间是如何变化的？这种效果如何根据所实施的法律类型而变化？2. 新的选民身份法对投票率的影响如何随时间变化？新法律对投票率的影响是短期的还是长期的？这怎么取决于法律有多严格？3. 出台这些法律的动机是什么？它仅仅是为了防止欺诈，还是被行为者用来通过塑造选民来巩固自己的权力？这个项目是创新的，因为它试图在所用的分析技术方面应用先进的定量方法来解决一个没有得到应有重视的问题。在英国，随着政府实施试点计划，身份识别法的问题正在引起高度争论。这个项目很重要，因为它将能够更好地为英国国内外的辩论提供信息，并将辩论从轶事的使用转向与世界各地的大n研究相结合的单一案例研究，从而可以进行细微差别和比较。这将通过建立一个数据库来实现，其中包括每个国家或区域（如果这是一项权力下放的政策）所使用的选民身份识别法，并结合一系列选举周期的选举总投票率，该数据库将以议会选举为重点。还将补充关于投票率、信任和选举完整性的个人数据。这些数据将取自先前的国际和国家横断面调查和小组调查，这些调查对选举廉正领域的选民和专家进行抽样调查。这样做是为了确定选民身份法与选举参与以及对政府和民主的态度之间是否有任何因果关系。此外，该项目旨在通过发展对选民身份法律和政策如何影响选举投票率和政治参与的理解，从而重新构建由多样化和广泛的数据提供信息的辩论，从而产生概念上的影响，并解决ESRC“动荡时代的信任和全球治理”的优先事项。我已经开始在我的本科论文中解决一些研究问题，我相信这个项目在博士学位的时间框架内是可行的，它将对文献做出原创性的贡献。我相信我是做这件事的合适人选，因为我有很强的定量分析能力，我打算在整个硕士和博士课程中都建立在这一点上，而且我对人们如何进入投票箱以及哪些法律塑造了这种进入的问题充满热情。要做到这一点，首先要扩大我对现有文献的了解，其次要完成t

This research seeks to develop our understanding of how voter identification laws affect voter turnout and people's attitudes towards electoral integrity both at the aggregate and individual level. Much of what we currently know about this topic comes from literature on the USA. Furthermore, the literature lacks a consensus on the effect that laws have. This research will expand the narrow literature and address the debate within it. I will build on this work by analysing a wide number of democratic countries, with repeated observations over time at both the country and individual level. This research will contain three core themes: 1. The relationship between current laws and turnout 2. The effect that a change in law has on turnout and attitudes 4 / 15 3. How people's attitudes are shaped by laws over-time These will help to guide and focus a series of inter-related research questions, which will use a mixed methods approach since large-N and case studies will be combined thus creating a nested design. The research will address three main questions: 1. What impact do voter identification laws have on turnout and political engagement? Is it always negative? How does this effect vary across different groups of voters, for example ethnic minorities and young people? How does this effect vary depending on the type of law implemented? 2. How does the impact of new voter identification laws on turnout vary over time? Do new laws have a short-term or a long-term impact on turnout? How does this depend on how strict laws are? 3. What are the motivations for the introduction of these laws? Is it merely fraud prevention or is it used by actors to consolidate their power by shaping the electorate? This project is innovative as it seeks to apply advanced quantitative methods, in terms of the analytical techniques used, to an issue which does not enjoy the attention it deserves. Within the United Kingdom at the moment the issue of identification laws is being highly debated as the government carry out pilot schemes. This project matters because it will be able to better inform the debate within and outside the UK and move the debate away from the use of anecdote and towards single case studies combined with large-N studies across the world where nuance and comparison can be made. This will be achieved through creating a database of the voter identification laws used in each country, or region (if it is a devolved policy), combined with the aggregate level of turnout in elections over a series of election cycles, which will focus on parliamentary elections. This will also be supplemented with individual level data on turnout, trust and electoral integrity. This data will be taken from pre-existing cross-sectional and panel international and national surveys, which sample voters and experts in the field of electoral integrity. This will be done in order to establish if there are any causal links between voter identification laws and electoral participation and attitudes towards government and democracy. In addition, this project will aim to have a conceptual impact and address the ESRC priority of 'trust and global governance in a turbulent age' by developing the understanding of how voter identification laws and policies impact election turnout and political engagement with the intention to re-framing the debate which is informed by a diverse and wide range of data. Having already begun to address some of the research questions in my undergraduate dissertation I am confident that this project is feasible within the time frame of a PhD and it will make an original contribution the literature. I believe I am the right person to do this due to my strong quantitative skills, which I intend to build upon throughout the Master's and PhD programmes, and passion for issues of how people access the ballot box and what laws shape this access. This will be achieved by firstly expanding my knowledge of the current literature, secondly by completing t