According to a study in the Journal of the European Economic Association, extending voting rights may diminish the risk of political violence.
The study looked at the effect of extension of voting rights on political violence in the context of the US Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“This paper’s empirical strategy takes advantage of these features by comparing the evolution of political violence in geographically close covered and non-covered counties,” the authors wrote in their findings.
“Additional empirical evidence implies that voting became the new institutionalized way to state political preferences. Indeed, VRA coverage mostly decreased electoral and small-scale strategic violence.”
“This result is not explained by disaggrievement. Extensions suggest that new strategies of political action may explain a decrease in violence after enfranchisement.”
