Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Spring 5-6-2026

Faculty Advisor(s)

Lewis Luartz

Abstract

What is the impact of corruption on voter turnout in Mexico? With the country’s political sphere of government corruption, such as bribery, favoritism, misuse of public funds, and abuse of authority by public officials, citizens’ responses to these issues have left many scholars with varied outcomes. While some say perceptions of corruption can lead to lower trust in political institutions, making people feel their voices are useless and that voting is pointless, others claim that, despite corruption, many citizens still feel compelled to participate in elections to punish corrupt officials. These perspectives, when citizens believe the government is corrupt, can be broad when examining corruption; literary sources differ in the actual number of citizens who have experience with it, or in the extent to which widespread media scandals heighten corruption perceptions, which may not reflect the actual reality of Mexico’s political climate. This study argues that when people believe the government is corrupt, they are less likely to participate in elections because their vote may not yield tangible policy change. Using the LAPOP Mexico 2023 Questionnaire, I analyzed this relationship using Logistic Regression. The findings suggest that the relationship between perceived corruption and voter turnout is not statistically significant; however, citizens’ economic perceptions are statistically significant. This result may be because perceptions among individuals can range from high to low, meaning that while others' views of corruption may be high, the overall perception of corruption in Mexico isn’t strong enough to significantly affect individuals' choice to participate in current or future elections. Compared to economic perceptions, this can be deemed a more substantial reason for citizens to participate in an election than corruption. Therefore, while corruption’s effects on voter turnout are not significant, understanding citizens' responses to complex political climates is imperative for maintaining a government’s stability and accountability.

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Presented at the Spring 2026 Student Scholar Symposium at Chapman University.

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