FACTORS AFFECTING VOTER TURNOUT IN CEBU CITY (2013 LOCAL ELECTION) I. Introduction Rationale of the study Every time there is an election, whether in the local or national levels, a basic question always arises: How many registered voters will flock to their respective precincts to exercise their right to suffrage? This question implies knowing the percentage of voters who actually showed up in the polls or what is commonly termed as “voters turn-out.” Understandably, such knowledge is important not only to those conducting poll surveys or to those running for elective posts, but also to the entire nation as well. A good turnout of voters would easily translate to good democracy wherein majority of the members of the society is conscious …show more content…
It is the main paradigm in the currently-dominant microeconomics school of thought. It is also central to modern political science, as well as other disciplines such as sociology and philosophy. Becker (1976) recorded that “the rational choice theory was early popularized by a 1992 Nobel Memorial Prize Laureate in Economics Science, Gary Becker, who was one of the first to apply rational actor models more widely”. Elster (1989) stated the essence of rational choice theory when he said that “when faced with several courses of action, people usually do what they believe is likely to have the best overall outcome”. The ‘rationality’ defined by the rational choice theory adopts a more specific and narrower definition, which simply means that “an individual acts as if balancing costs against benefits to arrive at an action that maximizes personal advantage.” (Friedman, 1953) The rational choice theory is argued to be the result of the envy of other disciplines on economics, and its principles of choice in human behavior. Scott (2000) …show more content…
It has assumed that people are motivated by money and by the possibility of making a profit, and this has allowed it to construct formal, and often predictive, models of human behavior. This apparent success has led many other social scientists to cast envious eyes in its direction. They have thought that if they could only follow the methods of economics they could achieve similar successes in their own studies. These sociologists and political scientists have tried to build theories around the idea that all action is fundamentally 'rational' in character and that people calculate the likely costs and benefits of any action before deciding what to do. This approach to theory is known as rational choice theory, and its application to social interaction takes the form of exchange