Between Civic Duty, Social Pressure, and Candidate Evaluation: Negotiating
Democratic Citizenship through Student Voting Behaviour in Higher
Education

Aosangla Longkumer , Dr Medongolie Zatsu; Lashili G. Chishi

doi:10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.004

Title: Between Civic Duty, Social Pressure, and Candidate Evaluation: Negotiating Democratic Citizenship through Student Voting Behaviour in Higher Education
Authors: Aosangla Longkumer , Dr Medongolie Zatsu and Lashili G. Chishi
Journal: International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research (IJSSER) ISSN: 2455-8834 Volume: 11 Issue: 7 Publication Date: July 2026 DOI: 10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.004
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Aosangla Longkumer1 , Dr Medongolie Zatsu2 and Lashili G. Chishi3 1. Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Kohima College, Kohima, Nagaland 2. Assistant Professor. Department of Economics, Kohima College, Kohima: Nagaland 3. Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Kohima College, Kohima, Nagaland
MLA 8 Longkumer, Aosangla, et al. "Between Civic Duty, Social Pressure, and Candidate Evaluation: Negotiating Democratic Citizenship through Student Voting Behaviour in Higher Education." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 11, no. 7, July 2026, pp. 2910-2931, doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.004. Accessed July 2026. APA 6 Longkumer, A., Zatsu, D., & Chishi, L. (2026, July). Between Civic Duty, Social Pressure, and Candidate Evaluation: Negotiating Democratic Citizenship through Student Voting Behaviour in Higher Education. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 11(7), 2910-2931. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.004 Chicago Longkumer, Aosangla, Dr Medongolie Zatsu, and Lashili G. Chishi. "Between Civic Duty, Social Pressure, and Candidate Evaluation: Negotiating Democratic Citizenship through Student Voting Behaviour in Higher Education." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 11, no. 7 (July 2026), 2910-2931. Accessed July, 2026. https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.004.
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ABSTRACT: Student body elections provide an important setting for examining how democratic citizenship is experienced and negotiated in higher education. Drawing on the integrative framework proposed by Antunes (2010), this study examines how the sociological influences, the psychosocial orientations, and the rational evaluations interact and negotiate throughout the electoral decision-making process in the context of Kohima, Nagaland. A mixed-method approach was adopted, combining survey data from 692 respondents across 11 colleges selected through stratified random sampling, along with qualitative data obtained through semistructured interviews. The findings suggest that student voting behaviour cannot be explained through democratic values, social influences, or rational evaluation of candidates in isolation. Rather, students encountered elections through socially embedded relationships, interpreted these experiences through the lens of democratic values, and ultimately shaped what appeared to be reasoned evaluations of candidates before making electoral decisions. These findings provide an empirical extension for Antunes' (2010) premise that the sociological, psychosocial, and rational-choice perspectives operate in continuous interaction to explain voting behaviour in nonpartisan student elections. This study contributes to the limited literature on student electoral politics in Nagaland by demonstrating that elections function as a microcosm of democratic citizenship in which social obligations, democratic values, and candidate evaluation are continuously evaluated.

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