The Psychology of Voting and Protesting

A MODEL BY PASSARELLI AND TABELLINI INTRODUCES THE PSYCHOLOGICAL VARIABLE AND STUDIES ITS EFFECTS

Voting is not the only force shaping public policies in democracies. In Emotion and Political Unrest, Francesco Passarelli, professor of european economic policy at Bocconi, and Guido Tabellini formulate a theory of how political protest influences public policy and introduce the role of emotions. “In a rational model, individuals would take to the streets to signal a political preference. In our model, they do it to show their frustration”, Passarelli says. “Those individuals feel that they have been treated unfairly by the government. They think that they have not received what they are entitled to”. Political protest is a collective action. The benefit of participation depends on how many individuals take to the streets. This mechanism can easily give rise to explosive phenomena. “Think about the Arab Spring or protests in Hong Kong and the EU”.

In an attempt to please different groups protesting for different and incompatible reasons, the government implements distorted policies in favor of small and homogeneous groups. “These groups are less likely to influence policy at the ballot, but more likely to do so in the street”. Passarelli and Tabellini introduce a resignation effect. Individuals have a rational view of what they are entitled to. In a period of economic crisis, they scale back their entitlements and accept painful policies without protesting. “We found out that a large public debt reduces political protest”. This creates an incentive for the government to procrastinate unpleasant policies until people are resigned. “This approach combines economics and psychology”, Passarelli says. “It would be useful in studying protest vote and populism”.

Read more about this topic:
Francesco Giavazzi. Elections: How and Why a Direction Is To Be Taken
Vincenzo Galasso. Experts and loyalists are the candidates that get onto the electoral lists
Marco Percoco. How tv news reporting affects voter decisions
Massimo Morelli. How voter turnout varies, and why
Tommaso Nannicini. How the choice of candidates changes under different electoral systems
Guido Tabellini. why extremist parties do not win runoff elections

by Claudio Todesco