Political participation under poor health : Evidence from Nordic Welfare States

Sammanfattning

The aim of this study is to explore a relatively underexamined dimension of political inequality: health. Drawing on the civic voluntarism model as a theoretical framework, the thesis examines how self- reported health relates to different forms of political participation, both electoral and non-electoral, within the context of Nordic welfare states. By analyzing several Nordic countries, the study investigates whether poor health functions as a constraint on political participation even in welfare state contexts, or whether comprehensive welfare systems might mitigate such effects. To address this research's aim, the thesis applies a quantitative approach and uses data from the European Social Survey, round 11 (2024), to conduct a series of binary logistic regression analyses. The results indicate that self-reported health is significantly associated with all forms of political participation examined in the study: voting in national elections, petition signing, and online political participation. Poorer health is associated with a lower likelihood of voting in national elections, while the opposite pattern is observed for petition signing and online participation. This finding highlights that health can shape political participation through different and sometimes contrasting mechanisms. Rather than exerting a consistent effect, health appears to function differently across participation forms, emphasizing the importance of analyzing multiple types of political engagement when studying political inequality. Although health is significantly related to the different forms of political participation, it explains only a limited part of the overall variation and should therefore be understood as one of several factors influencing participation rather than a dominant determinant. The findings suggest that welfare-state institutions may mitigate some of the political inequalities associated with poor health, while also pointing to the need for further research on the role of health in shaping political participation.