Abstract: Grassroots democratic election is an important way of farmers’ political participation, which is significant to the realization of rural political democratization. Based on a Logistic regression model, this paper makes use of CGSS data of 2013 to explore the influencing mechanism of life happiness and political cognition on farmers’ electoral participation behavior. The results of the empirical test show that the life happiness can improve the enthusiasm of the farmers’ electoral participation. Political cognition can play a significant role in promoting the farmers’ electoral participation behavior, and the degree of impact is larger. The individual characteristics, family income and social relationships of the farmers can also influence their electoral participation behavior. Therefore, in order to enhance the farmers’ enthusiasm in electoral participation, it is of great practical significance to improve the level of farmers’ material and cultural life, to cultivate farmers’ awareness of political participation, and to enhance the farmers’ political participation ability.

Key words: happiness of life; political cognition; farmers; electoral participation behavior