Liberals Should Pray for Rain: Weather, Opportunity Costs of Voting and Electoral Outcomes in South Korea (2019.06)

• 저자 : Woo Chang Kang
• 학술지명 : Political Science
• 발행처 : Francis & Taylor
• 권호 : 71(1)
• 게재년월 : 2019년 06월
• DOI : https://doi.org/10.1080/00323187.2019.1643744
• 초록 : Studies suggest that rainfall on an election day benefits the Republican Party in the United States and conservative parties in Western Europe. A common explanation is that marginal voters, whose turnout decisions can be affected by weather conditions, are more likely to be supporters of liberal parties. This paper shows that bad weather on an election day instead benefits the liberal parties in South Korea, where election days are designated as special holidays. Young voters, who tend to prefer liberal parties, often plan other activities whose feasibility is contingent on good weather conditions; as a result, they are more likely to turn out, and thus to provide additional electoral support to liberal parties, when weather is bad.