An analysis of the 2014 New Zealand general election: do Internet use and online party mobilisation matter?

ABSTRACT

Like many advanced industrial democracies, New Zealand has been experiencing relatively stagnant voter turnout levels. Much of the blame for low voter turnout has been directed towards voter apathy. The rapid development of Internet and communications technologies has made scholars consider the Internet as a possible remedy for the participation bias. In this research note, we extend the examination of Internet and vote mobilisation to the case of New Zealand. We ask whether the mobilisation by political parties and other people using the new media makes a difference in voter turnout. Specifically, we are interested in whether political parties mobilising citizens by using the new media and/or virtual methods make a difference to voter turnout. Using the 2014 New Zealand General Election as the basis of our analysis, we find that use of the Internet increases the probability of casting a vote. Moreover, we find that if Internet use is complemented by a party orientation, voters are more likely to vote as well. While we do not find support for party campaigning through the Internet in increasing the probability of voting, these findings give support to claims that the Internet enhances political participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Internet
• political mobilisation
• political participation
• elections
• New Zealand parliamentary elections
• voter turnout

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See New Zealand Electoral Commission’s webpage: https://www.elections.org.nz/events/past-events/general-elections-1853-2017-dates-and-turnout.

2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/680688/new-zealand-internet-penetration/.

3. We also created dummy variables for Non-European ethnicity and Māori. There are suggestions that Māori that may not have access to the Internet are active in elections. Using this alternative model, we find that the coefficient of the key variable – left partisans with access to Internet – remains largely unchanged. In other words, the main findings and results of our original model hold up and are not affected regardless of the coding scheme of ethnicity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chia-Hung Tsai

Chia-hung Tsai is Director and Research Fellow of the Election Study Center and Taiwan Institute of Governance and Communications Research at National Chengchi University. His research interests are political behaviour, political attitudes, and research methodology.

Alexander C. Tan

Alexander C. Tan is Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Canterbury and University Chair Professor at the Department of Political Science and Taiwan Institute of Governance and Communications Research at National Chengchi University. His research interests are political parties and elections and political economy.

Koochul Jung

Koochul Jung is a PhD graduate of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Canterbury. His research interests are political parties and elections.