How does political socialization in a highly fragmented political scene affect propensity to vote? This article focusses on the long-term relationship between the number of political parties and the propensity to turn out in 96 parliamentary elections between 1996 and 2016 of nearly 100,000 individuals in 31 countries. Although intuitively more options might be expected to translate into a greater likelihood of participating in elections, existing research claims that high levels of party fragmentation instead lead to ‘choice overload’ and alienate citizens from voting. Building on the theory of voting as a habit, I show that early adulthood political socialization in a highly fragmented context leaves a footprint of non-voting in subsequent elections. This finding is especially relevant given the recent significant rise in fragmentation of most party systems in Europe, which in light of this research could mean a further decline in turnout rates in many countries in the future.

在高度分散的政治环境中的政治社会化如何影响投票倾向？本文着眼于政党数量与1996年至2016年间在31个国家/地区中近100,000个人的96场议会选举的投票倾向之间的长期关系。尽管从直觉上可能会有更多选择会转化为更多参与选举的可能性，但现有研究声称，高水平的政党分裂会导致“选择过多”，并使公民无法投票。我以投票为习惯的理论为基础，表明在高度分散的背景下，成年初期的政治社会化在随后的选举中留下了不投票的足迹。