Voter turnout differences across European coun-tries: Multiple regression analysis

The relationship between trust toward institutions and political actorsand citizen participation in democratic life is undoubtedly a topic of greatrelevance in contemporary social and political research. This book stemsfrom the experience accumulated on this issue as part of the HorizonTRUEDEM– Trust in European Democraciesresearch. More specifically, itallows us to present the results we have obtained regarding voter tur-nout, one of the most critical topics in research on representative demo-cracies since it is considered an indicator of the legitimacy of political insti-tutions. More specifically, our book aims to outline the factors at stakewhen voter turnout is addressed in social and political research, with aparticular reference to social and political trust. We focus on the roleplayed by political and institutional trust on one side, and social or gene-ralized trust on the other, in affecting voter turnout trends and differen-ces among the EU countries. The results obtained from the research willenable us to draw some conclusions both on the scientific level and on thelevel of policies geared toward improving the democratic life of Europeancountries. While it may be helpful to emphasize the relevance of trustamong the causes of voter turnout and electoral behavior in general, itseems to us also useful to point out that, based on this, we can design poli-cies for reforming political processes in European democratic regimes.