Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T01:37:52.958Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Is Requiring People to Vote Contrary to Democratic Values?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

Jason Brennan
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Lisa Hill
Affiliation:
University of Adelaide
Get access

Summary

The question of whether compulsory voting is inimical to democratic ideals has been partly dealt with in earlier chapters, where I argued that while it infringed on personal liberty, it enhances the democratic values of legitimacy, representativeness, political equality, inclusiveness, minimization of elite power, and final control of the agenda by the demos. In this chapter, I argue that compulsory voting also serves the value of substantive equality of political opportunity (as opposed to either political equality or formal equality of opportunity). I also explore a number of other issues relating to the effect on democratic values of compulsory voting. The first concerns the argument that compulsory voting is overinclusive and therefore introduces distortions into the electoral process that undermine good governance. On this view, not only is compulsory voting a bad idea, but there also is a duty for some people – such as those who vote “badly,” are indifferent to the outcome of an election, or are “unaffected” by the outcome of an election – not to vote in order to protect democratic values. I then argue that although compulsory voting seems to violate the democratic values of voluntarism and autonomy, because of its tendency to empower and protect people politically, it ultimately serves these values. Sometimes we need to reduce a value in order to promote it: specifically, in order to promote overall the values of voluntarism and autonomy, we should compel people to vote. Finally, I argue that compulsory voting is something that we would retrospectively impose on ourselves once we see its good effects, including its ability to solve the voting coordination problem.

Type
Chapter
Information
Compulsory Voting
For and Against
, pp. 174 - 195
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dahl, Robert, After the Revolution: Authority in a Good Society (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1971): 64
Goodin, Robert E., “Enfranchising All Affected Interests, and Its Alternatives,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 35 (2007): 40–68Google Scholar
Sheehy, Paul, “A Duty Not to Vote,” Ratio 15 (2002): 46–57Google Scholar
Donovan, T., Denemark, D., and Bowler, S., “Trust, Citizenship and Participation: Australia in Comparative Perspective,” in Denemark, D., Meagher, G., Wilson, S., Western, M., and Phillips, T. (eds.), Australian Social Attitudes 2: Citizenship, Work and Aspirations (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2007): 102
King, Amy and Leigh, Andrew, “Are Ballot Order Effects Heterogeneous?,” Social Science Quarterly 90 (2009): 71–87Google Scholar
Miller, J. M. and Krosnick, J. A., “The Impact of Candidate Name Order on Election Outcomes,” Public Opinion Quarterly 62 (1998): 291–330Google Scholar
Ho, D. E. and Imai, K., “Estimating Causal Effects of Ballot Order from a Randomized Natural Experiment: The California Alphabet Lottery, 1978–2002,” Public Opinion Quarterly 72 (2): 216–40
Young, S. and Hill, L., “Uncounted Votes: Informal Voting in the House of Representatives as a Marker of Political Exclusion in Australia,” Australian Journal of History and Politics 55 (2009): 64–79Google Scholar
Dario, Gina and Medew, Rod, “Pilot Project on Informality in Port Adelaide,” Research Report Number 9 [Canberra: Australian Electoral Commission, 2009])
Karlan, Pamela S., “Convictions and Doubts: Retribution, Representation, and the Debate Over Felon Disenfranchisement,” Stanford Law Review 56 (5)(2004): 1147–70Google Scholar
Dryzek, J., Deliberative Democracy and Beyond: Liberals, Critics, Contestations (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000): 172
Paine, Thomas, “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” in Paine, T. (ed.), The Writings of Thomas Paine, Collected and Edited by Moncure Daniel Conway (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons 1894 [1791]): vol. 3, xxiv
Sidgwick, H., The Elements of Politics (London: Macmillan, 1891): 587
Thompson, D. F., The Democratic Citizen (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1970): 13–19
Pettit, Philip, “Analytical Philosophy,” in Goodin, R. E. and Pettit, P. (eds.), A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy (London: Wiley-Blackwell: 1995): 7–38
Pettit, Philip, “Consequentialism,” in Singer, P. (ed.), A Companion to Ethics (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1991): 230–40
Calabresi, G. and Melamed, A. D., “Property Rules, Liability Rules and Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral,” Harvard Law Review 85 (April 1972): 1089–1128Google Scholar
Goodin, Robert, Political Theory and Public Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982): 49
Hill, L., “Informal Voting under a System of Compulsory Voting,” in Costar, B., Orr, G., and Tham, J. [eds.], Electoral Democracy: Australian Prospects [Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press, 2011])

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×