ABSTRACT
Does British turnout in European elections reflect anything more than features of the British electoral system and other contextual factors which would lead any country in the same situation to have low turnout? The question is complicated by the fact that British turnout, though always low, has shown noticeable variations. The investigation proceeds by coding institutional and other contextual factors governing turnout in thirteen political systems that took part in European elections from 1979 to 1994, and using these factors as independent variables in analyses of turnout differentials. The variables include measures of the importance of each election and of the receptiveness of the electorates to group appeals - factors that can vary from election to election. The analysis succeeds in explaining by far the greater part of the differences in turnout from country to country and election to election, yielding expectations close to those observed in fact. British turnout is lower than expected, but not by much, and variations from election to election are explicable in terms of different political contexts. Britain’s performance in comparative perspective emphasizes the importance of motivational factors in getting out the vote.
