Does Voting Habit Formation Dampen Political Change? The Downturn of Mainstream Parties and the Growth of New Parties

We study how voting habit formation shapes the process of emergence of new parties and decline of mainstream parties. We analyze the recent raise of new parties in Spain as a case study. We find that voters that have not developed a voting habit are more likely to support new parties compared to those that have been eligible before. This is not due an age effect, as we compare individuals of exactly the same age (21 years old) that are on each side of the eligibility threshold due to their day and month of birth. We conclude that voting habits slow down the process of political change. We also find that the “resistance” effect is heterogeneous and depends on the characteristics of the place in which political socialization occurs.