Is Door-to-Door Canvassing Effective in Europe? Evidence from a Meta-study across Six European Countries

TY - JOUR

T1 - Is Door-to-Door Canvassing Effective in Europe? Evidence from a Meta-study across Six European Countries

AU - Bhatti, Yosef

AU - Dahlgaard, Jens Olav

AU - Hansen, Jonas Hedegaard

AU - Hansen, Kasper Møller

PY - 2019/1/1

Y1 - 2019/1/1

N2 - A vast amount of experimental evidence suggests that get-out-the-vote encouragements delivered through door-to-door canvassing have large effects on turnout. Most of the existing studies have been conducted in the United States, and are inspiring European mobilization campaigns. This article explores the empirical question of whether the American findings are applicable to Europe. It combines existing European studies and presents two new Danish studies to show that the pooled point estimate of the effect is substantially smaller in Europe than in the United States, and finds no effects in the two Danish experiments. The article discusses why the effects seem to be different in Europe compared to the United States, and stresses the need for further experiments in Europe as there is still considerable uncertainty regarding the European effects. While one possible explanation is that differences in turnout rates explain the differences in effect sizes, the empirical analysis finds no strong relationship between turnout and effect sizes in either Europe or the United States.

AB - A vast amount of experimental evidence suggests that get-out-the-vote encouragements delivered through door-to-door canvassing have large effects on turnout. Most of the existing studies have been conducted in the United States, and are inspiring European mobilization campaigns. This article explores the empirical question of whether the American findings are applicable to Europe. It combines existing European studies and presents two new Danish studies to show that the pooled point estimate of the effect is substantially smaller in Europe than in the United States, and finds no effects in the two Danish experiments. The article discusses why the effects seem to be different in Europe compared to the United States, and stresses the need for further experiments in Europe as there is still considerable uncertainty regarding the European effects. While one possible explanation is that differences in turnout rates explain the differences in effect sizes, the empirical analysis finds no strong relationship between turnout and effect sizes in either Europe or the United States.

U2 - 10.1017/S0007123416000521

DO - 10.1017/S0007123416000521

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0007-1234

VL - 49

SP - 279

EP - 290

JO - British Journal of Political Science

JF - British Journal of Political Science

IS - 1

ER -