Policies, politics or participation? Exploring the political understanding of non-voters in the 2022 North Rhine-Westphalian election

Abstract Abstention has long been treated as a residual category in electoral research. However, a research interest in understanding non-voters emerged in the 1990s following declines in turnout in the 1980s. Existing research on non-voters largely focusses on socio-economic attributes (e.g. education), demographic characteristics (e.g. age) and political attitudes (e.g. political apathy) to explain abstention. This study explores how non-voters understand politics and the political process. It draws inspiration from studies of political culture, such as those by Fuchs (2002) and Rohe (1984), and uses data from eight focus group discussions conducted with 52 total participants who reported not voting during the 2022 North Rhine-Westphalian state elections. The analysis reveals that participants focus primarily on the output dimension of the political process and that input dimensions are secondary. At the same time, participants report a lack of representation by political decision-makers and display limited political knowledge.