Институт За Политичке Студије

Добрињска 11
11000 Београд

Контакт подаци

COMPULSORY VOTING: AN EPISTEMIC PERSPECTIVE

Сажетак

Compulsory voting is defended as the most effective institutional mechanism for ensuring high turnout in response to the problem of insufficient participation in democratic elections. Although arguments in favor of this practice implicitly rely on assumptions about knowledge, competence, or the quality of democratic decision-making, the epistemic dimension of compulsory voting has so far not been examined in a systematic way. This paper analyzes how epistemic considerations enter existing normative arguments in favor of compulsory voting: arguments based on rights and duties, arguments concerning democratic legitimacy, and consequentialist arguments. It examines both the scope and the limits of epistemic justification for compulsory voting, as well as some explicitly epistemic objections to the practice. The paper addresses the question of whether compulsory voting can be defended on purely epistemic grounds and concludes that, although the epistemic approach plays an important role in its defense, it is not sufficient on its own to justify compulsory voting.

Референце

  • Abraham, Henry J. 1955. *Compulsory Voting*. Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press
  • Birch, Sarah. 2008. *Full Participation: A Comparative Study of Compulsory Voting*. Manchester: Manchester University Press
  • Brennan, Jason. 2011a. “Condorcet’s Jury Theorem and the Optimum Number of Voters.” *Politics* 31 (2): 55–62. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9256.2011.01403.x
  • Brennan, Jason. 2011b. *The Ethics of Voting*. Princeton: Princeton University Press
  • Brennan, Jason. 2014. “Medicine Worse Than the Disease? Against Compulsory Voting.” In *Compulsory Voting: For and Against*, eds. Jason Brennan and Lisa Hill, 3–107. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • Brennan, Jason. 2016. *Against Democracy*. Princeton: Princeton University Press
  • Cohen, Joshua. 1986. “An Epistemic Conception of Democracy.” *Ethics* 97 (1): 26–38. DOI: 10.1086/292815
  • Cohen, Joshua. 2005. “Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy.” In *Debates in Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Anthology*, eds. Derek Matravers and Jonathan Pike, 342–360. London: Routledge
  • Downs, Anthony. 1957. *An Economic Theory of Democracy*. New York: Harper & Row
  • Estlund, David. 2008. *Democratic Authority: A Philosophical Framework*. Princeton: Princeton University Press
  • Feitosa, Fernando, and Carol Galais. 2020. “How Stable Is the Sense of Civic Duty to Vote? A Panel Study on the Individual-Level Stability of the Attitude.” *International Journal of Public Opinion Research* 32 (2): 344–353. DOI: 10.1093/ijpor/edz029
  • Goldman, Alvin I. 1999a. *Knowledge in a Social World*. Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Goldman, Alvin I. 1999b. “Why Citizens Should Vote: A Causal Responsibility Approach.” *Social Philosophy & Policy* 16 (2): 201–217. DOI: 10.1017/S0265052500002442
  • Goodin, Robert E., and Kai Spiekermann. 2018. *An Epistemic Theory of Democracy*. Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Hill, Lisa. 2014. “Compulsory Voting Defended.” In *Compulsory Voting: For and Against*, eds. Jason Brennan and Lisa Hill, 111–203. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • Hong, Lu, and Scott E. Page. 2004. “Groups of Diverse Problem Solvers Can Outperform Groups of High-Ability Problem Solvers.” *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences* 101 (46): 16385–16389. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0403723101
  • Katz, Richard S. 1997. *Democracy and Elections*. Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Kelly, Jamie Terence. 2012. *Framing Democracy: A Behavioral Approach to Democratic Theory*. Princeton: Princeton University Press
  • Klijnman, Carline. 2021. “An Epistemic Case for Positive Voting Duties.” *Critical Review* 33 (1): 74–101. DOI: 10.1080/08913811.2021.1932084
  • Landemore, Hélène. 2013. *Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many*. Princeton: Princeton University Press
  • Lardy, Heather. 2004. “Is There a Right Not to Vote?” *Oxford Journal of Legal Studies* 24 (2): 303–321. DOI: 10.1093/ojls/24.2.303
  • Lau, Richard R., and David P. Redlawsk. 2006. *How Voters Decide*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • Lever, Annabelle. 2010. “Compulsory Voting: A Critical Perspective.” *British Journal of Political Science* 40 (4): 897–915. DOI: 10.1017/S0007123410000050
  • Lever, Annabelle, and Alexandru Volacu. 2019. “Should Voting Be Compulsory? Democracy and the Ethics of Voting.” In *Routledge Handbook of Ethics and Public Policy*, eds. Adrian Poama and Annabelle Lever, 242–254. London: Routledge
  • Lijphart, Arend. 1997. “Unequal Participation: Democracy’s Unresolved Dilemma.” *American Political Science Review* 91 (1): 1–14. DOI: 10.2307/2952255
  • Lomasky, Loren E., and Geoffrey Brennan. 2000. “Is There a Duty to Vote?” *Social Philosophy and Policy* 17 (1): 62–86. DOI: 10.1017/S0265052500002533
  • Maskivker, Julia. 2016. “An Epistemic Justification for the Obligation to Vote.” *Critical Review* 28 (2): 224–247. DOI: 10.1080/08913811.2016.1191183
  • Mill, John Stuart. [1861] 2001. *Considerations on Representative Government*. London: Elecbook Classics
  • OECD. 2024. *Society at a Glance 2024: OECD Social Indicators*. Paris: OECD Publishing. DOI: 10.1787/918d8db3-en
  • Riker, William H., and Peter C. Ordeshook. 1968. “A Theory of the Calculus of Voting.” *American Political Science Review* 62 (1): 25–43. DOI: 10.2307/1953324
  • Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. [1762] 1997. *The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • Wertheimer, Alan. 1975. “In Defense of Compulsory Voting.” In *Participation in Politics*, eds. J. Roland Pennock and John W. Chapman, 276–296. New York: Lieber-Atherton.