Abstract
This chapter considers several objections to compulsory in Australia: that compulsory voting unacceptably abridges individual liberty; that it is unnecessary for high electoral turnout; that it is undemocratic; that it violates the ‘right not to vote’; that it has a detrimental effect upon the behaviour and composition of Australia’s political parties; and that it mobilises large numbers of disengaged citizens, with negative consequences for Australian democracy. The chapter provides a critical assessment of these objections and concludes that none of them comes anywhere close to showing that compulsory voting in Australia ought to be repealed.
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Notes
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Moreover, as Bonotti (in this volume) points out, compulsory voting may also help ensure that officials offer appropriate public justification for other liberty-abridging policies.
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This evidence also constitutes a powerful riposte to the charge that compulsory voting leads political parties to be less responsive to the worse-off (see e.g. Barry 2013, p. 39).
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It is also worth noting that, in at least some cases, the abolition of compulsory voting has been associated with a steep decline in electoral participation. In 1988, for example, turnout in national elections in Venezuela was 81.7%. Penalties for abstention were abolished for the subsequent 1993 election, at which turnout was around 60% (Birch 2009, p. 88).
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It is worth noting that liberty-based accounts of the value of democracy are highly controversial. See esp. Christiano (1996, pp. 15–46).
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See Umbers (2020b) for an overview.
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Of course, for some citizens $20 may constitute a non-trivial sum of money. There are obvious reforms that would address this issue—e.g. making the fine proportional to citizens’ levels of income and wealth.
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Though, of course, some political theorists have argued that such arrangements are, indeed, unjust. See esp. Nozick (1974). I think that there are powerful reasons to be sceptical of such arguments—though I cannot explore the issue in depth here.
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See Engelen (2009, p. 220) for a similar response.
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See e.g. JSCEM (1997, pp. 25–26).
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Indeed, it is often argued that this at least partially explains why the major parties in Australia adopted compulsory voting in the first place. See e.g. Miragliotta et al. (2013, p. 147).
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Others have voiced similar concerns. Don Aitkin (1982, p. 283), for instance, writes that ‘[s]ince the introduction of compulsory voting in 1924 the parties have ceased to regard the building of membership as a vital party function’.
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Though there is, of course, a large literature on ‘distributive politics’, insights from which might plausibly be brought to bear on this question. For an overview, see Golden and Min (2013).
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Umbers, L.M. (2021). Assessing Objections to Compulsory Voting in Australia. In: Bonotti, M., Strangio, P. (eds) A Century of Compulsory Voting in Australia. Elections, Voting, Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4025-1_4
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