DeVOTE - The meanings of 'voting' for citizens

Description

DeVOTE is a research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) from January 2021 to December 2025.  A research team led by the Principal Investigator Ass.-Prof. Carolina Plescia aims to provide first-time evidence on what ‘voting’ means for ordinary citizens. The project is hosted by the Department of Government at the University of Vienna.

The question "What is the meaning of voting?", is of great importance today due to the growing distrust in the act of voting itself and in democratic institutions in many countries around the world. The DeVOTE project investigates the political, symbolic and psychological meanings of voting. What does voting mean to you? Is voting a civic duty? Is there a political alternative to voting?

Aim

The project’s goals are to:

• understand what ‘voting’ means for ordinary citizens;
• examine the variation of 'voting' meanings across individuals and across countries;
• study how elections create and modify these 'voting' meanings;
• investigate the consequences of 'voting' meanings for citizens' preferences, attitudes and their political behaviours;
• devise an election 'observatory' for systematic data collection on the meanings of voting on Election Day that can favour the scientific interpretation of election outcomes.

How to participate

Equipment