Posts
I would have to agree with Dagger’s idea about compulsory voting and self-resignation. If it is a citizen’s duty, according to Dagger, to vote to become politically involve in their community and remain us of rights about voting, then I think it would be necessary to, not necessarily force, but discipline people to vote. In my point of view, I think our government leaves us with a lot of options to choose between what we, each individually, want. Once we find what we want, we usually stay and only stay on that realm of our personal needs, disregarding anything else that would makes us doubt or change our personal needs and beliefs. Therefore, by leaving to the choice to vote or not, or giving us the sole responsibility to vote, gives us the decision if voting is even part of our personal interests. And from what I got from Dagger, I get the feeling that the people don’t care voting because it is not part of their lives or interests. Therefore, people don’t vote and don’t perform their duties to the community, in which they benefit from. Thus, I understand, and Dagger would say, that they are “free riders.”
Overall, I would have to disagree with Dagger’s method in making people voting through legal meanings. Punishing or fining people for not voting seems repressive and it leaves room of people to resist. I would argue that discipline people to voting or be actively involved in the political system of the community is better than that to force people to vote or punishing them for no doing so.
Mental Models of Purpose of College
2 years ago
I'm wondering how compulsory voting would apply to individuals who raise the issues that "the candidates are too similar" or "I don't like either candidate"--in other words, how do we handle people who hold the opposite belief from you (that there are lots of options to choose from). Would we expect these people to pick the lesser of two evils, or would they receive a reprieve from voting?
ReplyDeleteTo combat your view, Tan, what about countries where compulsory voting is in effect and there is arguably greater political participation than here in the United States? I think it is also interesting that Ernie mentions in a different post the statistical correlation between compulsory voting and less poverty. Also, if we have compulsory voting and people wouldn't cooperate, how could we really enforce it-I doubt the U.S. government would take the time to issue fines to about 100 million people (approximation based on last election), or at the very least people would be likely to pay that fine if they were protesting the vote.
ReplyDeleteI could imagine that fining system would be automated, similar to the IRS system of making sure we pay our taxes. This doesn't seem like a huge hurdle to overcome.
ReplyDelete