David Brockington, "It's about the Benefits: Choice Environments, Ideological Proximity and Individual Participation in 28 Democracies," Party Politics, 15 (July, 2009), 435-454.

First paragraph:
Among Western democracies, participation in elections has been in steady decline for the past 50 years. In a study of 24 countries, Dalton finds this decline to have occurred in nearly all of the cases studied, with average levels of turnout cases to have dropped from 82 percent to 76 percent (1996). Lijphart (1997) reports a larger decline. The practical ramifications of this decline have been cause for some debate among empiricists and normative theorists. Bennett and Resnick find limited cause for alarm regarding the fate of democracy, but warn that 'a large number of nonvoters means officials will be disproportionately in thrall to intense issue activists' (1990: 800).

Within the limitations of cross-sectional research, this article does demonstrate that variance in the ideological coverage of parties competing for election makes a difference in overall rates of participation. Put another way, we need to focus not only on the demand side of elections, but the supply side as well, when addressing the turnout puzzle. If the market is not offering what the consumer wants, the consumer has little reason to participate.

Figures and Tables:

Table 1. Effect of ideological coverage on turnout in 28 democracies: logistic regression models

Table 2. Effect of ideological coverage on turnout: HLM models

Figure 1. Relative effects of four variables on the probability of voting

Last Paragraph:
Within the limitations of cross-sectional research, this article does demonstrate that variance in the ideological coverage of parties competing for election makes a difference in overall rates of participation. Put another way, we need to focus not only on the demand side of elections, but the supply side as well, when addressing the turnout puzzle. If the market is not offering what the consumer wants, the consumer has little reason to participate.