Should voting be compulsory for all citizens or people should have freedom to choose not to vote. What is your opinion?
The idea of mandatory voting system is widely debated, with many people claiming that forcing people to vote does not appear to be rational at all in a democratic environment. However, I do not entirely accept this and I will explain why in this essay.
There are a myriad of arguments in favour of compulsory voting. The most conspicuous one is that in order to get an authentic reflection of people’s perception on an election, each and every adult has to exercise their suffrage. Not only does it enable the citizens of a country to choose the right leaders they want to see in the government, but it also ensures that the country does not select the leaders who are not honest, sincere, dedicated and accountable. This is because the majority of population cannot be unanimous in choosing wrong leaders. Needless to say, all these benefits stand the country in good stead, when it comes to good governance and efficacious management.
Another pivotal aspect of compulsory voting is that if people have freedom not to vote, many people will not feel any pressure to exercise this democratic right. For example, unlike countries such as Bangladesh and India, which do not force people to vote and so, the turnout of voters is very low, countries with stringent penalties for not voting such as Australia usually have higher turnouts, thus making the election a fairer one. Hence, it is apparent why many are against offering any leeway to voters for the sake of democracy.
In view of the arguments outlined above, one can conclude that the benefits of compulsory voting are indeed too great to ignore.
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Hey there aman619
I am a firm believer in compulsory voting.
Effective democracy depends on participation. The most effective participation is voting in democratic elections.
I don't understand why people born in democratic countries can be so lazy(perhaps not the right word...) as to suggest that voting should not be compulsory - or defend it if it isn't. People fight and die - are doing do right now - for the right to choose their leaders.
So many people in the west don't know how good we've got it.
I am agree with you, thanks for reading my article.
I think the opposite - more in the line of use it or loose it. So cannot be bothered to vote for two votes? Fine, loose it for the next 5. I would prefer people to vote that actually cared about it, than people voting because they had to. Personally, would also like to vote on issues like the do it Switzerland - not just voting for parties.
I agree! There are many good reasons for making voting a duty as well as a right. Often people think there is no need to vote as the polls indicate a win for their preference, so why bother. Then the result ends up going the other way. One might hope that both sides would do the same and the effect cancel itself out, but that is not necessarily the case. It depends on many factors, which by their nature should not be influencing the outcome; like age, social class, education, etc. It makes the whole business a lottery as a oppose to an exercise in democracy.
If you want local services you have to pay tax. If you want democracy you should have to vote.