This work presents an application of the multilevel analysis techniques to
the study of the abstention in the 2000 Spanish general election. The
interest of the study is both, substantive and methodological. From the
substantive point of view the article intends to explain the causes of
abstention and analyze the impact of associationism on it. From the
methodological point of view it is intended to analyze the interaction between
individual and context with a modelisation that takes into account ...
This work presents an application of the multilevel analysis techniques to
the study of the abstention in the 2000 Spanish general election. The
interest of the study is both, substantive and methodological. From the
substantive point of view the article intends to explain the causes of
abstention and analyze the impact of associationism on it. From the
methodological point of view it is intended to analyze the interaction between
individual and context with a modelisation that takes into account the
hierarchical structure of data. The multilevel study of this paper validates
the one level results obtained in previous analysis of the abstention and
shows that only a fraction of the differences in abstention are explained by
the individual characteristics of the electors. Another important fraction of
these differences is due to the political and social characteristics of the
context. Relating to associationism, the data suggest that individual
participation in associations decrease the probability of abstention. However,
better indicators are needed in order to catch more properly the effect of
associationism in electoral behaviour.
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