Does Compulsory Voting Improve Democratic Attitudes and Engagement? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Belgium

For over a century, scholars, policymakers, and advocates have argued that compulsory voting not only boosts turnout but also promotes prodemocratic attitudes and political engagement. However, empirical tests of this claim have been limited by trade-offs between internal and external validity. To address this challenge, we investigate the consequences of compulsory voting for democratic attitudes and engagement using a design that yields relatively credible and generalizable estimates. We exploit a unique quasi-experiment in Belgium, where compulsory voting was recently abolished for local elections in one region but retained elsewhere. To estimate the effects of this policy change, we employ difference-in-differences models using a new panel dataset covering four elections held in 2024. We find that, although the abrogation of compulsory voting caused a sharp drop in turnout, it did not alter democratic attitudes and engagement.