Engagement In The Political Process Mathew Parackal, Chris Rudd, Phil Harris, and John Williams University of Otago Abstract In this paper we describe the beginnings of a research programme aimed at discovering the reasons for the decline in voting behaviour in New Zealand. We use similar research, commissioned by the British Electoral Commission, as our base. We found that the most influential factors affecting voting behaviour are the engagement in the electoral process, and age of voters. These factors account for approximately 30% of the variation in voting behaviour; this level of explanation is consistent with previous research. We contend that this information is insufficient to base a marketing campaign with the aim of inducing non-voters to vote, as it does not tell us how to get voters engaged in the electoral process. Further research, based on the 2005 New Zealand Parliamentary Election, will probe these issues. Introduction In this paper, we describe a research programme with the aim of exploring the dimensionality and causal linkages in the political process in parliamentary democracies. Very little work has been done in the area previously. We build on what limited results are available and outline a research agenda for the future. Engagement in the political process, as measured by voter turnout in national and local bodies’ elections, has been declining in most western democracies in the last decade (The Electoral Commission, 2004; Vowles 2004; Pintor & Gratschew, 2002). Franklin (2004) attributes the lack of competitiveness of the election to the declining voter turnout. There is also evidence that voter turnout is largely a generational phenomenon (Miller and Shanks 1996; Lyons and Alexander 2000; Putnam 2002; Blais, Gidengil, Nevitte and Nadeau 2004). Another reason for declining voter turnout is the lowering of the voting age (Franklin 2004; Vowles 2004). This was done to include the younger people in the election process. Unfortunately, in many democracies, they happen to be the ones who do not participate in the election process (Pintor & Gratschew 2002; Franklin 2004; Vowles 2004). The studies mentioned have mostly tried to explain the disengaged part of the electorate. Efforts to establish causal linkages with voting behaviour, however, have been limited in the past. Previous Research One step forward in this direction has been taken by the British Electoral Commission. In 2003, they commissioned MORI (Market and Opinion Research International, a private British research firm) to conduct a “Political Engagement Poll”. The aim of the research was to find out who does and does not vote. Some information as to who does vote is now available from the Electoral Commission’s research. Further details of this project are available on-line (MORI 2004). The poll was conducted in the form of face-to-face in-home survey interviews in December 2003. Usable responses from 2,000 adults from across the ANZMAC 2005 Conference: Social, Not-for-Profit and Political Marketing 178