My argument is that a good Liberal democracy depends on freedom, which includes rights. Obviously some freedom, such as the freedom to hurt somebody else, is harmful. Optional voting doesn't fall into that category. It hurts nobody.
Arguably the whole purpose of a democracy should be that of freedom, although it works both ways.
One of the recognised measures of the effectiveness of a democracy is that of its participation rate. Any compulsory voting system will mask that measure of effectiveness. It is obvious to blind Freddy that democracies differ in interpretation, and you don't need a university degree in political science to understand that. Although it's not a major part of my argument, I have quoted the works of great thinkers such as Aristotle and Thomas Jefferson.
I'm not talking about how the Ancient Greeks introduced democracy as anything particularly special, or the current system in the US for that matter. What counted much more was how the thinkers of the day conceived the system operating.
They dwell to a large extent on the subject of freedom, and you find liberty/ freedom as common recurring themes in the birth of democracies. Liberté, égalité, fraternité was the catchcall of the French republic. You hear a lot more about freedom that about democracy.
Quote: A! fredome is a noble thing!
Fredome mayss man to haiff liking;
Fredome all solace to man giffis:
He levys at ess that frely levys!
('Ah! Freedom is a noble thing!
Freedom makes man to have liking:
Freedom all solace to man gives:
He lives at ease that freely lives!)
John Barbour (1316-1395)
You can have freedom without democracy, but you can't have an effective democracy without freedom.
You can also have a democracy with no freedom. These are ineffective democracies - democracies in name only. If you reduce the freedom, you reduce the effectiveness of the democracy - not by very much perhaps, but it is tangible.
I argue that voting, whether voluntary or compulsory makes very little difference. Each has its advantages. This is interestingly enough, mirrored in the poll, which shows that a slight majority are in favour of a voluntary poll, but that on the whole, there is very little difference.
You argue that those people who are forced into a vote will somehow transform the electorate from one dominated by excitable minorities. I argue that the inclusion of people who would rather not be there, does not add any additional rationality to the poll or reduce "excitability" in any way.
Compulsory voting might be a very slight erosion of freedom, but a little leads to more and more erosion of our freedom.
You can think of a democracy in terms of cold mathematical principles, but it's worthless unless you inject some freedom into that democracy, and take account of the nature of
humanity - not cold number crunching - It has always been in the nature of humanity to yearn for freedom. The demo part of "demokratia" or "people-power".
Is it relevant to talk about the inspirations of people in older times when freedom was less universal? I'd argue that it is, because so many people these days take it for granted. If you want to know about freedom, listen to those who hungered for it - yes and fought for it.
It's preposterous to think that by making voting voluntary would catapult us into either the the UK model or the US model, and both are very different systems. Do you really think that would be the case, Jalane?
No, we'd remain uniquely Australian. It's in our nature.
I would dispute that supposed correlation. There are countries where the participation rate is very high and very enthusiastic. Libya for example or Egypt. There is no way you would describe them as democracies yet. we have a fairly low participation rate in the democratic process because we are used to it working well on its own. that doesn't mean we shouldn't encourage and yes REQUIRE some level of participation. Again, we are regarded as one of the worlds most robust and stable democracies. That didn't happen by accident.
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Campbell Newman to scrap compulsory voting in QLD (Read 94514 times)
