Social Deprivation, Political Alienation
and Community Empowerment.
The geography of voter turnout in Ireland,1997-2002, and
its Association with Social Deprivation.
The Irish political system has become increasingly characterised by declining turnout rates in
the past few decades, with this accompanied by very low turnouts in a number of areas and
for certain elections types. This thesis addresses this context through analysing turnout
variations in recent election using a spatial framework and focussing particularly on how
these spatial patterns in turnout are associated with levels of social well being. Other factors
were also analysed in terms of their impacts on turnout variations, namely a range of social
and political factors. Constituency level and sub-constituency level analyses are used to
analyse the extent to which deprivation may influence turnout levels and to determine whether
this relationship is stronger in urban or rural areas or for different types of elections. The use
of marked register turnout data allows this relationship to be tested using very detailed data
for small geographical areas. The ecological modelling of turnout variance is upheld by the
use of individual level analyses (through the use of questionnaires and interviews).
Strong associations between turnout and social well-being for urban areas were uncovered in
the Dublin study area, with turnouts generally lower in the more deprived areas. There was no
evidence of such a relationship in the rural areas for local elections, although there was a
pattern in which turnouts were lower in the more deprived areas in general elections and,
especially, referenda. Election-specific influences on the relationship between turnout and
deprivation were uncovered, with class influences being more pertinent in relation to
referendum turnouts. Other socio-economic and demographic influences were shown to have
a bearing on spatial variations in Irish turnouts, such as age and residential mobility, with the
effect of such influences being particularly pronounced in certain geographical contexts.
Political mobilisation factors were also shown to have a bearing on Irish turnout variations,
with local election turnouts in areas being especially determined by the presence, or nonpresence,
of candidates local to the area in the contest
