Arguments Against Mandatory Voting Essay

Popular participation is often cited as one of the fundamental principles of democracy. The right to vote macrocosm a freedom that has, and continues to be, sought after by people all over the world. Despite the range of many semipolitical systems movement toward universal suffrage, the few countries that have confused the right to vote, with a urgency to, have arguably deteriorated the significance of this achievement. Australia is part of a considerable minority that implement obligatory voter turnout laws, and of an even smaller subset that enforce them. Although the proponents of mandatory voter turnout will be considered, the incompatibility of required voter turnout with implied freedoms, with broad theories of democracy and the overall inefficacy of producing a more engaged public, serve as perspectives that ratify the nonion that right to vote should no longer be compulsory in Australia.The Australian Constitution raises a number of questions about the constitutio nal validity of mandatory voting. Given this evaluation of an issue so given(p) to political rights, the implications of these challenges coming from a source as authoritative as this cannot be understated. The existence of a legal responsibility to vote can be perceived as incongruous with the implied freedom of political communication that was proved in Australian Capital TV v Commonwealth 1992 and recognised forever since. This inconsistency extends to the right to vote being proved as an implicit right in s7 and s24 of the Constitution, which, as reported by Dr. Anthony Gray, is an entitlement to vote that includes the freedom not to. Whilst advocates for the current system of emergency may carry on that voting is a civic duty, such reasoning can be seen as unconvincing as it fails to acknowledge that abstention is a perfectly valid form of political expression.Through an analysis of mandatory voting from a wider democratic perspective, the idea that compulsion is an infring ement of free will be fucks increasingly apparent. In addition to the obvious paradox that a democratic country forces its constituents to vote, a truly free community should allow for the demonstration of dissatisfaction and make provisions for a refusalto identify political beliefs.Although commentators in favour of compulsion may assert that the ability to provide an informal or donkey vote facilitates this, the inefficiencies these contribute to as well as its inherent irrationality, given they are discounted, are persuasive arguments against such an opinion. Moreover, although there is a certain degree of legitimacy in the claim that obligatory voting serves to augment the democratic ideals of comparability and participation, compelling a person to vote is ultimately, according to academic Katherine Swenson, antithetical to the concept of individual freedom.A common belief maintained by supportingers of compulsory voting is that it creates a more politically lively electora te. Whilst in theory this is conceivable, its practical limitations make the alleviation of indifference a distant reality. In support of this, a 2007 experiment conducted by Peter Loewen et al. in a Quebec election found that required voting had little or no effect on the knowledge and engagement of its participants. In the Australian context, condescension the assumption that the problem of participation is solved by mandatory laws, in the last election near one-fifth of eligible Australians failed to cast a usable vote. It is argued that candidates and parties rely on these laws to get voters to the ballot.If this is the case, perhaps the event is to abandon compulsory voting and thus force parties to organically incite a politically dynamical populace through enticing and innovative policies. The dichotomy of democracy is that it demands both individual freedoms and equality. A coarse difficulty of modern politics has been the ability to strike a balance between these parad igms, and to determine at what point one must be truncated to enhance the other. Through an analysis of compulsory voting through a constitutional, democratic and practical context, it has become clear that such a regime has no place in a society that strives to exist as an epitome of democracy. The time has now come for Australia to abandon its paternalistic voting laws and entrust its political future with the voluntary voice of the Australian public, and not in a piece of legislation that commands it to speak.REFERENCE LIST/ BIBLIOGRAPHY1. Chong, D, Davidson, S & Fry, T 2005, Its an grievous Thing to Oblige People to Vote, Policy (St Leonards NSW), vol. 21 no. 4, pp. 10-16.2.Gray, A 2012, The Constitutionality of Australias Compulsory voting System, Australian Journal of Politics & History, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 591-608.3.Hoffman, R & Lazaridis, D 2013, The Limits of fixation Demographic Influences on Voter Turnout in Australian State Elections, Australian Journal of political S cience, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 28-43.4.Krishna, V & Morgan, J 2012, Voluntary voting Costs and benefits, Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 147, no. 6, pp. 2083-2123.5.Lever, A 2010, Compulsory Voting A Critical Perspective, British Journal of Political Science, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 897-915.6.Loewen, PJ, Milner, H & Hicks, BM 2008, Does Compulsory Voting Lead to More Informed and Engaged Citizens? An Experimental Test, Canadian Journal of Political Science, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 655-672.7.Singh, S 2011, How Compelling is Compulsory Voting? A Multilevel summary of Turnout, Political Behaviour, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 95-111.8.Swenson, KM 2007, Sticks, carrots, donkey votes, and true choice a rationale for abolishing compulsory voting in Australia, Minnesota Journal of International Law, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 525-552.Gordon, SB & Gary MS 1997, Cross-National Variation in the Political Sophistication of Individuals Capability or Choice?, Journal of Politics, vol. 59, no. ?, pp. 126-147.Hooghe, M & Koen,P 1998, Compulsory Voting in Belgium an Application of the Lijphart Thesis, Electoral Studies vol. 17?, no. ?, pp.419-424.