Social Policies are Democratic Policies

Voter turnout in Germany is declining. From a democratic perspective, this is particularly problematic because it is falling more sharply among unemployed and low-income voters than among socioeconomically better-off voters. As a result, the interests of certain sections of the population are less well represented in elected bodies and their decisions. 

Our re-analysis of previously unpublished data from the Finnish Basic Income Experiment provides impressive evidence of the leverage that the design of the social system can exert against democratic regression. 

• One possible lever is social policy. Previously unpublished data from the Finnish basic income experiment show how social security can influence voter turnout: when unemployed people received an autonomous and incentive-rich transfer payment instead of the regular, sanctionable unemployment benefit, the willingness of volatile (non-)voters to go to the polls increased by more than 7 percentage points.
  
• One reason for this is that recipients of the modified transfer payment also experienced an increase in trust and a sense of political efficacy, two important motivational prerequisites for going to the polls.
• The political implications: in view of current crises and challenges, social policies must also be designed from a democratic perspective. For our current basic income support, this means that the possibility of eliminating sanctions and a favourable transfer withdrawal rate should be examined. 

Technical Report