10 Reasons Voting Should Be Mandatory
Mandatory voting, in which the registration and participation of all eligible citizens is required by law, continues to be one of the most politically polarizing issues of the modern age. On the one hand, you have those who inveigh against it: claiming that its implementation would undermine their libertarian rights as enshrined in the constitution and that it would corrupt the current system by encouraging the participation of the politically uninformed and uneducated. On the other hand, you have those who censure the choice of those who consciously avoid performing their civic duty
, exercising their franchise and having a say in the shape their government takes.
At present, there are twenty-six countries that operate under some system of compulsory voting, the majority of which are found across Europe and South America. Many of these countries enforce the law: Australia, perhaps, being the example best known to the western world, legally obliging its citizens to vote since 1929. Others operate under a system of compulsory voting, but do not enforce it. What is true for all is that each country that has adopted mandatory voting has its own cultural and historical precedent informing the decision: Belgium and Thailand, for example, adopted the system to bypass the possibility of buying votes, while its implementation across Latin America seems to be more rooted in tradition. Yet the benefits are apparent enough that both the electorate and the political classes in countries where voting is optional frequently advocate its introduction.
Britain, India and Bulgaria are just a few countries in recent years to have had its adoption rejected after its formal proposal, but this is not stopping pressure from below, nor distracting a growing number of people from its advantages. Here are 10 reasons why all democracies should enforce mandatory voting.
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