Add to Calendar
Add to Calendar
The concurrent rise of mass politics and democratic institutions represent two major global political trends of the past two centuries. Arturas Rozenas, with Anna Degrave and Alejandro Lopez-Peceño, examines the relationship between these historical developments by investigating how voting rights have influenced mass political mobilization. Utilizing the discontinuous variation in suffrage levels in the French local elections during the July Monarchy (1830-1848), they find that broader suffrage increased political interest, collective mobilization, and opposition to autocracy. Even when introduced and practiced within an authoritarian system, the right to vote facilitates the development of a pro-democratic mass public.
