Resident and Non-resident Citizens and their Attitudes to External Voting Rights: Evidence from Five EU Countries

Over the last few decades countries around the world have become increasingly likely to provide their citizens living abroad with electoral rights and many countries are also making it more convenient to use these rights. The expansion of electoral rights and discussions about the form they should take have spurred a vivid scholarly debate. But very little is known about what citizens living in the country of origin, and non-resident citizens living abroad think about these rights. Considering that the electoral rights of citizens living abroad in some cases could have a substantial impact on the outcome of elections, this relative dearth of knowledge is problematic. That said, asking resident citizens and non-resident citizens, their views about electoral rights for non-resident citizens requires a carefully calibrated approach. First, it is a complicated issue on which political theorists hold diverging opinions, and where practical electoral arrangements vary greatly across countries. Some countries provide wide-ranging rights; others provide their citizens living abroad with no or very limited electoral rights. Second, it is an issue that is quite distant from the daily lives of most resident and non-resident citizens. To address these issues and to gain a more informed view of the attitudes of resident and non-resident citizens, to the electoral rights of non-resident citizens, we employ a survey in five European countries (Belgium, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Ireland) with very different legislation on electoral rights for non-resident citizens. We evaluate attitudes toward external voting rights and the right to stand as a candidate from abroad with unique data collected in 2023.