The differentiated effects of health on political participation

Abstract

Background: Several studies have shown that an individual's state of health can significantly affect their decision to vote, but analysis is often only done on a single level of government; the national level. However, prior research has shown that the determining factors for voting can differ according to the level of government being considered. Our analysis is the first attempt to take a comprehensive look at the magnitude of health and political participation in a same country on different levels. Methods: Based on Canadian General Social Survey-Social Identity (2013; N = 27 695), we examined both the direct and indirect effect of self-rated health and self-rated mental health on (1) national voter turnout; (2) local voter turnout and (3) other forms of political participation. Results: The results show that health has a different effect on turnout depending the level of government. While health certainly affects participation on both levels of government, general health significantly affects national electoral participation levels while mental health more significantly affects electoral participation on the municipal level. Additionally, people who consider their mental health to be poorer, are more likely to sign an online petition. Conclusions: These elements highlight the necessity of questioning the cost of voting according to the level of government, and that further research into the potential offered by Internet and remote voting, is worthwhile-despite the opinions of critics who eschew these means of voting.

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