The Extraterritorial Voting Rights and Restrictions Dataset (1950–2020)

• Author: Elizabeth Iams Wellman,Nathan W. Allen,Benjamin Nyblade
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00104140221115169
• Published date: 01 May 2023
• Date: 01 May 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Comparative Political Studies

2023, Vol. 56(6) 897–929

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00104140221115169

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The Extraterritorial

Voting Rights and

Restrictions Dataset

(1950–2020)

Elizabeth Iams Wellman

1,2

, Nathan W. Allen

3

, and

Benjamin Nyblade

4

Abstract

This paper introduces the Extraterritorial Rights and Restrictions dataset

(EVRR), the f‌irst global time-series dataset of non-resident citizen voting

policies and procedures. Although there have been previous efforts to

document external voting, no existing data source simultaneously captures

the scale (195 countries), time frame (71 years), and level of detail concerning

extraterritorial voting rights and restrictions (over 20 variables). After a bri ef

overview of prior datasets, we introduce EVRR coding criteria with a focus on

conceptual clarity and transparency. Descriptive analysis of the dataset reveals

both the steady expansion of extraterritorial voting as well as several regional

and temporal trends of voting rights restrictions. Finally, we revisit and extend

the work of two groundbreaking cross-national studies focused on the causes

and effects of external voting rights. Using EVRR data we demonstrate that

including more f‌ine-grained aspects of extraterritorial voting provisions in

these analyses improves understanding of important political and economic

outcomes.

1

Williams College, Williamstown, MA, USA

2

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

3

St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, Canada

4

UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Elizabeth Iams Wellman, Department of Political Science, Williams College, 204 Schapiro Hall,

Williamstown, MA 01267, USA.

Email: biw1@williams.edu

Keywords

elections, migration, diaspora, electoral systems, democratization, representation,

voting rights

Over the last three decades, the majority of the world’s states extended voting

rights to non-resident citizens.

1

This translates to the mass enfranchisement of

roughly 200 million emigrants in the elections of over 140 countries around

the world. For countries with competitive elections, especially the 75 states

with sizable diaspora populations, incorporating diaspora votes has the po-

tential to change election outcomes.

2

Moreover, given the importance of

economic remittances for many developing economies, the inclusion of

emigrant citizens in elections has not only political but also economic

implications.

There is signif‌icant variation in the extent to which states enable their non-

resident citizens to vote from abroad. This variation exists cross-nationally

and over time, as well as sub-nationally depending on the type of election as

well as electoral cycle. In some cases, political actors support diaspora voting,

expanding access and adjusting campaign strategies to mobilize supporters

abroad; in others, political actors minimize emigrant participation by im-

posing signif‌icant voting restrictions or ignoring calls for enfranchisement

entirely. Despite attempts to systematically collect and analyze cross-national

data on extraterritorial voting dating back 20 years (Blais et al., 2001), this

variation within emigrant enfranchisement—not only the formal recognition

of voting rights but also the array of policy decisions shaping the ability to

vote from abroad—has not been fully captured by existing global datasets

covering non-resident citizen enfranchisement. Documenting this variation is

critical to understand the degree of emigrant political inclusion in which legal

adoption of voting rights is only the f‌irst step in a dynamic process of ex-

panding or restricting effective enfranchisement abroad.

3

This important

distinction between legal rights and multifaceted implementation is not

captured by any existing global dataset.

4

The Extraterritorial Voting Rights and Restrictions Dataset (EVRR) is the

f‌irst comprehensive global time-series dataset of external voting, covering 195

countries from 1950 to 2020. EVRR makes four central contributions to our

understanding of extraterritorial voting rights. First, EVRR distinguishes

between legal adoption and implementation of extraterritorial voting rights.

Second, EVRR systematically codes over 20 restrictions on external voting

rights, focusing on three ways participation is regulated: voter eligibility,

modality of access, and institutional integration. Third, EVRR presents

longitudinal data with country-year observations for 71 years, enabling

changes in rights and restrictions to be tracked over an extensive period of

898 Comparative Political Studies 56(6)

time. Fourth, EVRR provides a detailed codebook and sourcing for each

variable, facilitating both the interpretation of coding procedures and con-

tinued updating of the dataset.

The richer empirical analysis that the EVRR dataset makes possible comes

at a time in which scholars working in quite diverse areas have increasingly

recognized the importance of migrant rights and political engagement.

Recent scholarship highlights the important role of migrant political ties

within international labor markets and f‌inancial f‌lows (e.g., Mosley &

Singer, 2015), conf‌lict studies (Helbling & Meierrieks, 2020), democrati-

zation (e.g., Escrib`

a-Folch et al., 2015), autocratic regime stability (Dendere,

2018;Miller & Peters, 2020), and elections (e.g., Arrighi & Baub¨

ock, 2017;

O’Mahony, 2013). The EVRR dataset enables analysis of the causes and

consequences of emigrant political inclusion (and exclusion) to be con-

ducted in a more nuanced fashion across a larger number of cases and overa

longer period of time.

In this paper we introduce EVRR and present initial applications using new

variables from the dataset. We f‌irst conceptualize extraterritorial voting

and develop how this def‌inition motivates the core dimensions and in-

dicators we measure. Next, we review the existing cross-national efforts to

measure emigrant voting rights, all of which have notable limitations,

including scope of coverage, poorly def‌ined variables, or fail ure to

measure restrictions. Wethen introduce EVRR, explaining how our coding

strategy and sources address and overcome these challenges by presenting

detailed measurement criteria for two core variables—Legal Adoption and

Implementation—as well as a brief overview of the 22 additional re-

strictions variables included in the dataset. We then provide initial analysis

of the dataset revealing descriptive trends in external voting rights and

restrictions across regions and over time.

Finally, we replicate and extend two groundbreaking cross-national studies

on emigrant political inclusion: the international diffusion of extraterritorial

voting rights (Turcu & Urbatsch, 2015) and the relationship between the

extension of political rights and migrant remittances (Leblang, 2017). We

f‌ind that it is not legal extension of extraterritorial voting rights that drives

regional diffusion but the actual implementation of external voting abroad.

We al so f‌ind that although adoption and implementation of extraterritorial

voting by themselves are not associated with higher levels of remittances,

more inclusive modalities of external voting are associated with signif‌icantly

higher levels of remittances. These analyses demonstrate the value of the

EVRR dataset and approach: more f‌ine-grained variables measuring how

extraterritorial voting is organized improves our understanding of major

causes and consequences of extending political rights to citizens abroad.

5

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