Active on the street but apathetic at the ballot box? Explaining youth voter behaviour in Tunisia’s new democracy

Abstract

Tunisia is a unique context where youth-led protests in 2011 led to a successful democratic transition followed by elections where voters experienced democracy for the very first time. Despite young people’s involvement in the revolutionary protests, youth participation at the ballot box remained low. This article uses the case of Tunisia to exemplify the intriguing and often contradictory elements of youth voter abstention by testing an array of theories using data from an original survey conducted in 2018—a mere two weeks after Tunisia’s inaugural municipal elections. This analysis documents that youth voter abstention persists in a context where youth are theoretically ‘primed’ for political participation. Lack of certain socio-demographics, low political interest, and a perception that voting is unimportant explain Tunisian youth voter abstention from 2011–2018. Overall, I argue that that even after a country undergoes a successful youth-led democratic revolution, subsequent electoral behaviour is likely to normalize.