Contented citizens vote against change

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - 10:01 in Psychology & Sociology

US citizens who have a high quality of life are more engaged in the direct democracy process, according to Ryan Yonk from Utah State University and Professor Shauna Reilly from Northern Kentucky University in the US. Their study, looking at the effects of quality of life on voter participation in direct democracy elections, demonstrates that quality of life is a strong predictor of voter turnout. However, interestingly, voters with a higher quality of life are less likely to support changes in public policy through direct democracy. They appear satisfied with their current form of government and prevent ballot measures that would disrupt the status quo. Yonk and Reilly's work is published online in Springer's journal, Applied Research in Quality of Life.

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