What Would Happen if We Were Better Informed? Simulating Increased Knowledge in European Parliament (Ep) Elections

What would happen if the public in a multiparty system became better or worse informed? This article examines the consequences of political knowledge on turnout and vote choices in three recent Nordic European Parliament (EP) elections. Only a moderate increase in political knowledge would result in more than 3 percentage point higher turnout. The relative support for the parties would also be affected if knowledge increased significantly, though less so than for turnout. Social democratic parties would be the big losers and among the winners would in particular be conservative parties. Though the party level changes appear larger than in two‐party systems, the predicted changes in relative power between the political blocs are at best moderate.