Compulsory Voting Encourages Complacency with Ignorance in Politics (1/2)

Compulsory voting is not the driving factor behind voter turnout, nor accounts for ignorance of politics.
Peter Tucker, a researcher at the University of Tasmanias School of Government, October 19, 2005, "Voter Turnout, Voter Ignorance, and Compulsory Voting," Online Opinion - Australia's e-journal of Social and Political Debate, http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3822&page=1 (accessed 8/15/13) My observation is that compulsory voting makes a difference to turnout, but not as much as many people think. Compulsory voting gives a relatively high level of informal votes (most countries have levels well below 1 per cent), which brings Australia back to the pack even more. After informals are removed, Australias true participation rate is about 76 per cent, which is not that far abov e the OECD mean of 70 per cent. So, if a legal compulsion to vote is not the prime motivator, why do large portions of the worlds population bother? There is plenty of evidence that voters around the world are ignorant of politics and politicians, so it cant be any great public interest in the policy debates. Again it is interesting to compare the US with Australia. Figure 4 summarises some recent findings in the US in regard to voter knowledge. It shows that American voters tend to be ignorant on even the most basic of issues. The above data show a generally high level of engagement in political issues by the majority of voters, but what of the depth of knowledge? Ian McAllister undertook a study in 2001 leading him to suppose that, by any standards, levels of political knowledge in the electorate are low. Based on analysis of a survey of voters in the 1997 Australian federal election he found that the median voter could only answer correctly two out of seven factual statements about political institutions.

Australia's compulsory voting forces the elected to be chosen by the ignorant facet of society.
Peter Tucker, a researcher at the University of Tasmanias School of Government, October 19, 2005, "Voter Turnout, Voter Ignorance, and Compulsory Voting," Online Opinion - Australia's e-journal of Social and Political Debate, http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3822&page=1 (accessed 8/15/13) Putting all the above together, what influence does compulsory voting have on Australians? First, it puts us up with the leaders when it comes to voter turnout, but by no means way out in front. After taking high levels of non-registration and informal voting into account, voter participation in Australia only just exceeds OECD averages. And it does appear that, compared to many countries, Australian elections are characterised by higher levels of citizen engagement in politics, higher public awareness of policy options, and generally a belief by voters that their vote is important. But all this is relative. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that Australias elections are decided by at least a sizable portion of the electorate that does not know about political issues and does not care. They care about their duty to vote but do not necessarily go to the ballot box armed with much knowledge; but whether any voter in a modern democracy can ever have enough information to know all they need to know on all issues is highly unlikely. No one

acting rationally could invest the time and effort needed to fully analyse all policy issues so, to an extent, all voters are politically ignorant.

Compulsory Voting Encourages Complacency with Ignorance in Politics (2/2)

Through the use of surveys, researchers have demonstrated that compulsory voting hides political apathy and is inconsistent with democratic ideals.
Jacqui Briggs, University of Lincoln PhD, and Karen Celis, PhD University College Ghent, 2010, For and Against: Compulsory Voting in Britain and Belgium, p. 18. In terms of the arguments against compulsory voting (see Figure 2), the legitimacy argument, Compulsory voting hides political apathy and creates the illusion of high electoral participation, receives the most support. This notion of illusion is the key aspect as far as the majority of those who are opposed to compulsory voting are concerned. Combining the high agree score for the legitimacy argument for compulsory voting with the high agree score for the legitimacy argument against compulsory voting, we conclude that the question whether compulsory voting raises the legitimacy of political institutions is highly controversial. The voice argument is the second most favoured argument against, that is to say, A vote without compulsion is a better vote because the voters are self-selecting and more likely to be interested and informed. In joint third place, if the arguments are placed in rank order, are the democratic and the educational arguments; namely, Compulsory voting is not consistent with freedom, the cornerstone of democratic government and People will turn away from a political system that forces them to do something against their will.