Non-Voters on the Rise in Germany

It is hard to find a lamppost in Berlin these days that hasn't been requisitioned by at least one political party for campaign advertising. Median strips and traffic circles across the nation have been turned into billboards, cementing political slogans into the minds of millions of commuters. The election's the top story in the media.

And yet, the percentage of Germans exercising their constitutional right to participate in representative democracy has been declining -- at all levels -- since the early 1980s.

While some view this trend as a warning sign, a premonition of the demise of German democracy, others argue that it points to Germany's maturation as a democracy. After all, the percentages of non-voters in the Britain, Switzerland, and the US are double or even triple the German rate. Whatever the cause, the trend is indisputably indicative of societal change.

Disenchantment with politics?

The percentage of Germans who did not cast ballots on election day doubled over the last 14 years: During the Bundestag election of 2002, it climbed to nearly 21 percent. The number of voters decreased in each federal state except Bavaria, where it rose slightly to 81.6 percent -- the highest rate in the federal republic.

In Germany as a whole, 3 percent fewer voters cast ballots than in the previous election, leading political scientists and sociologists to pose the question: What is happening to Germany's democratic tradition?

Analysts of voter behavior have identified two fundamental causes for the rise in non-voters. The first has to do with an increasing disenchantment with politics in general.

According to this theory, a decreasing "sense of civic duty," observable especially among younger Germans, motivates fewer people to go to the polls. This trend, if it continues, will ensure that more elderly Germans decide on key issues such as pension reforms.

"It won't be long before older people decide elections on their own," said Michael Eilfort, director of the Berlin-based economic policy think tank Stiftung Marktwirtschaft and a leading expert on non-voters. A loss of political power by the youth will lead to their interests being neglected in campaign strategies and in parliament, with negative consequences for them in the long-run, he added.

Loosening societal ties

But another, and more important explanation, according to Eilfort, has to do with a loss of traditional social institutions.

As ever fewer Germans become registered, dues-paying party members, church members, or practitioners of "traditional family life," the ability of these conventional institutions to motivate and mobilize voters declines. Non-voters have increased accordingly.

"People go to the polls when bonds to community institutions remain strong," Eilfort said. "In a familial environment, in a church setting or in trade unions, where people are more likely to talk politics, they are also more likely to vote."

Non-voters as political agents

Other non-voters make a conscious decision not to participate in the election to protest against either the policies of the ruling party or against the democratic system in its current state.

"Non-voters decide, increasingly and to a greater degree, the results of elections," wrote Eilfort in a recent article. "Mobilizing voters is now becoming the main task, whereas previously it was enough to convince with content."

An online forum for non-voters

Non-voters have thus become a political group with significant clout. They increasingly receive attention from political observers.

Ahead of the election, pol-di.net, which focuses on politics and the Internet launched a Web site for non-voters called www.ich-gehe-nicht-hin.de (I'm not going to the polls).

"We wanted to give non-voters a voice and a choice, and to show that political dialogue in the Internet is in demand," said Christoph Dowe, who organized the project.

Dowe does not intend for the Web site to contribute to the non-voter trend, but to be a place for people to share their opinions on the state of German democracy.

"We believe that it is time to offer a place for dialogue where people feel they are being heard who otherwise feel they are only a problem of the pollsters," he said.