Abstentionism consists of not voting
The practice that involves not getting involved in making a decision , thus rejecting the exercise of the right to participation, is known as abstentionism . The concept is usually used in the political field, especially with reference to an electoral process.
do not vote
Abstentionism, in this sense, means not voting . The person who abstains from voting does not cast his/her vote , thus neither expressing his approval nor his rejection of a candidacy or a proposal.
It should be noted that abstentionism is not associated with null votes or blank votes . He who abstains does not even go to the polling place; On the other hand, the subject who casts an invalid or blank vote participates in the election .
A protest stance
In some elections, it is essential to reach a quorum (a minimum number of voters out of the total number of eligible voters) for the result to be valid. These cases make abstentionism take on greater importance, since those who decide not to vote can cause the process in question to be cancelled.
Although the right to vote is individual, abstentionism is often positioned as a political position or even as a movement . When abstention is very high, it is considered to be a demonstration against the system .
Causes of abstentionism
Although so far we have pointed out that abstentionism is generally motivated by discontent with the proposals of candidates for political office, the study of the causes of the decision not to vote can lead us to a more in-depth analysis. and detailed of the factors that cause it directly or indirectly.
Let's start with the sociodemographic factors , since participation in electoral processes is inevitably linked to a series of social and demographic issues, such as age, sex, monthly income, level of academic training, geographical location, infrastructure . communication and religion.
Nor can we leave aside psychological factors , such as the loss of interest in voting due to political issues (which often leads to stopping supporting a certain ideology). The fact that elections do not always lead to obvious changes leaves many people deeply skeptical of the system, which negatively affects the apparent importance of the vote.
Among the political factors we can mention the indifference that many parties show to the real problems of their voters, the lack of innovative and forceful proposals to attract the attention of the people and the excessive growth of some parties over others.
Various attitudes of the parties erode interest in suffrage
Classification
Terms such as apathy or laziness appear frequently when talking about abstentionism or abstentionism. We speak of apathetic abstentionism to describe the attitude of those who convince themselves that the individual vote is not important to justify their lack of commitment . Those who respond to this profile usually ignore the potential consequences of this decision.
It is possible to differentiate between passive abstention and active abstention . With passive abstention, the fact of not voting is associated with the individual's disinterest or even ignorance . Active abstention, on the other hand, is a political action, linked to ideology .
The level of interest and participation in electoral processes have a relationship of relative complexity. There are those who are disinterested in the elections because they believe that the current leaders are adequate, while there are also those who believe precisely the opposite. However, at both extremes there can be very low or very high participation, either by own decision or by imposition.