Does Forced Voting Result in Political Polarization

This paper estimates effects of exposure to compulsory voting on individuals' political preferences, through a regression discontinuity framework. These results are important to understand effects of a voting system transition. The identification comes from Brazil's dual voting system: voluntary and compulsory. Using self-collected data, we find that compulsory voting legislation has sizeable effects on individuals' political preferences, making them more likely to identify with a political party, to become extreme oriented and to move to the left.