Belgian Compulsory Voting Abolition Effects on Turnout and Attitudes

Four elections held in 2024 form the basis of a panel dataset analyzing the abolition of compulsory voting in Belgium. The data, created by Dieter Stiers for Public Opinion Quarterly, supports a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design to estimate policy effects on turnout and democratic engagement.

Use Cases

• Estimate the causal effect of compulsory_voting_policy on election_turnout rates using a difference-in-differences model.
• Analyze changes in democratic_attitude scores and political_engagement metrics before and after the policy change.
• Compare outcomes between the treatment_region where voting became voluntary and control_regions where it remained compulsory.
• Model individual-level panel data across four election_time_points to track longitudinal changes in voter behavior.

Strengths

• Data covers four elections in a single year (2024), providing multiple observation points.
• Employs a quasi-experimental design exploiting a natural policy change in one region for causal inference.

Limitations

• Sample size and row count are unknown, limiting assessment of statistical power.
• Geographic scope is limited to Belgium, reducing generalizability to other political contexts.
• Temporal coverage is confined to 2024, preventing analysis of long-term effects.

Provenance

Source

Dieter Stiers, Public Opinion Quarterly, hosted on Dataverse.

Collection Method

Panel dataset constructed for a quasi-experimental, difference-in-differences research design.

Time Range

2024

Freshness

Last updated April 2026, indicating recent maintenance.

Geography

Belgium, with a focus on regions with differing compulsory voting policies.