Valplikt eller Valfritt? : Hur påverkar obligatorisk röstning etniska minoriteters tillfredställelse med demokratin?

Sammanfattning: Compulsory voting has only in recent years been explored beyond how it affects turnout. Variables such as age, sex, education and party identification, income equality and democratic legitimacy and how they affect participation are some topics that have been studied. However, no previous studies have researched how compulsory voting affects ethnic minority groups, and specifically how it affects their satisfaction with democracy. Gaining knowledge about this relationship is of importance not only to better understand how compulsory voting affects the society on the whole. Moreover, minorities’ satisfaction with democracy is of great importance in the process of consolidating democracies. In order to examine how compulsory voting affects the satisfaction with democracy among ethnic minority groups, a quantitative method is being used, analysing survey data from Latinobarómetro covering the period 2015- 2018. Based on earlier research three hypothesis are being formulated and later tested using regression models with interaction terms, resulting in significant results that identify an increased satisfaction with democracy among the indigenous population. However, the same results are not found in the case of the afro-descendent population. The study furthermore does not find any evidence for turnout being a mechanism behind the increased satisfaction among the indigenous population in countries with compulsory voting. The results indicate that compulsory voting has a positive impact on satisfaction with democracy among ethnic minority groups, but in order to better comprehend why the results differ between the indigenous population and the afro-descendent population, further research is needed.