From equal political rights to equal political participation: Mapping and explaining the low electoral turnout among citizens with intellectual disability

Among the core promises of democracy is that of considering the interests of all groups of citizens. However, individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), are put on the sidelines in politics in almost all countries in the world. Now, an increasing number of states expand voting
rights to include all individuals with intellectual disability (ID) by removing legal barriers (Bhugra et al, 2016). The number of countries that enfranchise all adult citizens, including citizens with ID, rose from four in the early 2000s (Blais et al., 2001) to 21 in 2016 (Bhugra et al, 2016). Estimations of electoral participation among individuals with ID indicate that turnout is significantly lower within this group than among the general population as well as among individuals with other types of disabilities (van Hees et al. 2019, Keely et al. 2008, Mineur et al. 2009, SCB 2015). The disability voting gap (Teglbjærg et al., 2022; Brown and Jones, 2023) thus seems to be especially large for individuals with ID. This suggests that equal political rights do not translate into equal opportunity to use these rights to influence political outcomes for citizens with ID. However, the state of knowledge about the disability voting gap is poor. In order to facilitate electoral participation within this politically marginalized group and to do what Sweden has commited to do by signing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), more and better studies are needed.

This project aims to address this knowledge gap. By taking advantage of a register on pupils in special upper secondary school (Gymnasiesärskola) in Sweden together with data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), we will be able to: make precise estimations of electoral turnout in Sweden among first-time eligible voters with ID; describe variation in turnout cross regions and municipalities and explore possible explanations to variation in electoral turnout within this group, such as socio-economic status, type of accommodation, and degree of disability.
The project will provide a baseline for discussions on electoral participation among citizens with ID, discern subgroups that are particularly absent at the ballots, and assess the importance
of various factors that make political participation more or less accessible for the group.

Project start

2024

Funding

Stiftelsen Sävstaholm

Researchers

Jonas Hultin Rosenberg, Mälardalen University (Project leader)
Johan Wejryd, forskare i statskunskap, IBF