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| Voting Should Not Be Compulsory |
| The British government is considering a number of constitutional reform measures. Among these are that voting should be made compulsory. I'm strongly opposed to this. I feel that state compulsion is a bad thing in general and should be avoided wherever possible. A government should seek to intrude minimally into the lives of its citizens, except where the citizen requests it. Many people have no interest in politics and remain ignorant of it. By forcing them to vote, we compel politicians to appeal to the most stupid and ignorant among us. This will debase our democracy. |
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I think it should be compulsory for people who vote based on charisma rather than leadership
ability, stance on political issues, etc. NOT to vote. |
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Some people are just too stupid to be voting! |
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I agree. What would be achieved? It is the duty and responsibility of politicians to be more
transparent, less theatrical and more focused on real issues that affect real people, then more of
the electorate may be prepared to play their part in the democratic process. |
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In Australia, voting is compulsory, because of this, there are a lot of people who just show up and
vote for any random person, this may be one od the reasons John Howard was in office for so long,
even though there were a lot of people complaining about his actions. A greater turn-out is NOT a
good thing. |
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I'm not fully understanding why a high voter turn out is necessarily a good thing. Having masses of
people vote who are unaware of what is going on in their country or the world is not necessarily a
good thing. Having great hordes of people who vote out of self-interest or emotionally based
decision making is bad for a republic. |
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Completely agree.
Why would we want people who have no clue as to the workings of government and the policies on offer
to vote? They have big Brother and the X Factor anyway. Furthermore it should be everyone's right
not to vote just as it is to vote.
The reason voters turn out in such small numbers is that most have completely lost interest and
faith in the political process. So many lies have been told and so few promises fulfilled that
apathy has set in. Our choice in the UK seems to be which bunch of idiots do we want to lie to us
for the next few years. Or ignore it all and watch X factor and Big Brother on our nice TVs. |
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I am against government trying to force people to vote. It is a right, as has been said. In my case,
I don't vote for any U.S. Party because I can't decide which is the "lesser evil." |
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Those who support compulsory voting may be right in asserting that higher turn-outs in elections
help ensure much more representative and democratic government, but they are incorrect in
categorizing suffrage as a duty, rather than simply as a right. The Suffragettes who fought for
universal suffrage in Britain and the United States argued that women should be given the right to
vote, but their struggle did not involve forcing them (or others) to do so against their will.
There are ways to encourage higher turn-outs in elections, short of actually requiring people to
cast ballots. The best possible way is for national election commissions to run extensive ad
campaigns online, on television stations and in newspapers. In countries with significant ethnic and
linguistic minorities, the commission should also run parallel ads in all non-official heritage
languages. Very often, these minorities are most likely not to vote in elections, as some of them
may not fully understand the process to begin with. |
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 For and Against Recent Activity
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24 Mar 2008 12:44
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