Michael Lister (2007) makes a useful contribution to the discussion on aggregate variables that foster or depress turnout by drawing attention to societal factors, but his analysis is fraught with methodological problems. While his article builds on an interesting theoretical argument about the impact of institutions on attitudes, his claims about causal relationships are not backed by data. There is no rationale for the selection of countries, and most explanatory variables are actually constant within countries. The specification of the model is problematic in many ways. A careful re-analysis shows that the t-values reported in Lister's article are far too large, and that the estimates for Lister's model are highly unstable and dependent on the selection of observations. There is no robust evidence for a universal, politically relevant relationship between inequality and turnout.

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