Ideological Polarisation Influencing Citizens' Willingness to Vote

The voting context affects if individuals go to the polls. One important context feature is the extent of ideological polarization in society. In Europe, political discourses are organized by the left-right-continuum. Based on data from the European Social Survey I analyze the connection between the level of ideological polarization in the regions individuals spend their everyday life and their probability of voting. The results show that polarization demobilizes people in general, but not all group alike.