Abstract/Questions
What are the determinants of both the generally declining trend and the low level of voting turnout in US elections? Explaining voting turnout has been an active area of research in the political economy literature for at least four decades. Over the years, numerous theories have been advanced: rational-based theories, demographics, income, ethnicity, social groups, etc. One important aspect that has not been thoroughly explored is whether the presence of interest groups works as a substitute or a complement for voting turnout. This paper exploits a newly created database on interest groups at the county level to answer this question.