Compulsory Voting Compulsory voting was first introduced in Australia in 1924 via a bill as a means of increasing voter turnout. Years after the law, compulsory voting spread across Australia, moving from Victoria (1926) to NSW and Tasmania (1928), then to Western Australia (1936) and finally to South Australia (1942) (Evans, 2006). Since becoming law, it has come under intense scrutiny as citizens have come to question whether compulsory voting is good for democracy. This essay will critically discuss why compulsory voting in Australia is good for the continuation of democracy. We should first mention the restrictions on what compulsory voting entails. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In Australia, the extent to which compulsory voting affects its citizens is limited by the “Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918” (Pringle, 2012) which states that “it shall be the duty of every voter to vote at every election” (Evans, 2006 ). Nowadays, this means that the voter is mandated by law to go to a polling station, be struck off a list as present, collect his or her ballot paper, fill it out completely, and place it in the ballot box. Due to the severity of the law, voters are given numerous options for how to cast a vote; or by casting “one's vote at elections, including postal voting, pre-poll voting, absentee voting, voting in Australian missions overseas and voting on flying squads in hospitals and care homes and local remote, as well as ordinary voting at a polling station in their electorate". The fine for not participating in this mandatory voting is only $20 and perhaps in court for a day (Beck, 2013); this has proven quite ineffective in recent elections because fines and laws are not enforced most of the time. In short, this is the impact that Australian compulsory voting has for its citizens, but if you look at the topic as an individual voter it becomes clear that there are two very different views on this type of voting. As in most debates, there are supporters and opponents of an issue; this same case applies here. Because of the longevity that compulsory voting has maintained in Australia, supporters far outnumber opponents, and so their views will be discussed first. As mentioned above, the onset of this compulsory voting was built on the basis of increasing political participation of society, otherwise referred to as voter turnout in studies on this topic. Supporters of compulsory democracy believe it is good for democracy for a variety of reasons. The first of these motives seems to be at the heart of today's governments: civic duty. One proponent would say that “the duty to vote is not a violation of liberal rights” (Lacroix, 2007) but, like jury duty, taxes, and K-12 education, voting is a civic duty to which all citizens Australians must participate. their full participation, or similarly lack of participation, “the legitimacy of a country's government and electoral system” (Lever, Compulsory Voting: A Critical Perspective, 2010) is called into question. When this happens, all government actions can be considered in some sense “unconstitutional” and null and void; still being the worst case scenario. To reinforce this thought, the Australian government has stated that since the introduction of compulsory voting in 1924 the participation rate has never fallen belowbelow the reference level of “90%” (Moraro, 2013). A second reason in favor of compulsory voting for improving democracy is that it forces the government to “consider the total electorate in formulating and managing policies” (Compulsory Voting, 2011). In essence, this means that the views and concerns of the entire nation must be taken into account when making any decisions. It remains the duty of the government to fully represent and act in accordance with its constituency. Democracy allows everyone to express their opinions through votes, and in turn, the party that receives the majority of votes represents those opinions in government to the best of its ability; this being the theoretical definition that currently seems to move away from the realistic definition. Compulsory voting also allows for a broad and diverse representation of people relative to the entire electorate. Different parties and representatives of the country are chosen and allowed to influence the direction of the government through their vote. In this way, this type of compulsory voting is good for democracy. Another argument, to be mentioned later, in favor of this compulsory voting is the advantage of political campaigning. In this day and age, when enormous amounts of money and energy are spent on candidate campaigns, the issues that are chosen to be aired and expressed may focus on more pertinent issues rather than that of voter turnout. With this compulsory voting system in Australia, party politics has really become more transparent with this idea of ​​current pressing issues rather than voter turnout issues. These voter turnout results must however be put into perspective to see how effective they really are compared to the international community in which we live. To start this comparison, we must first know that only 17% "of the world's democracies force their citizens to vote and support this constraint with sanctions for non-voters" (Ballinger, 2006). Globally, the trend of voter turnout over the years has been declining, while voter turnout in Australia has maintained a baseline of around 90%, reaching 93.22% in the 2010 parliamentary elections (Voter Turnout, 2013). To refute this, however, it is said that “high voter turnout is a myth when you consider that 10% of Australians are not even registered” (Beck, 2013) to vote. As with most comparisons, the United States must be mentioned here too. The 2010 parliamentary elections in the United States saw a surprisingly low voter turnout of 41.59%; as a guideline, however, “a 53% voter turnout rate is not exceptional in American politics” (Marien, 2007). This lack of votes, however, can be partly explained by the fact that it was not an election for the president but exclusively for members of Congress. A second comparison that is also widely used in Australia is that with the United Kingdom. The 2010 UK general election “was a little… bleak, as 65% of the constituency cast their political vote” (Pracilio, 2012) compared to the Australian general election. Despite all the opinions of supporters of compulsory voting, there are also a number of opinions of opponents that need to be revisited to understand why, overall, it is good for democracy. Those who oppose compulsory voting essentially believe that “it is undemocratic to force people to vote, [through] an infringement of freedom” (Compulsory Voting, 2011). “Democracy means that we have the right to participate in politics freely and as equals” (Lever,Liberalism, Democracy and the Ethics of Voting, 2009). In principle, however, it is about leaving the power of the nation in the hands of the people and letting them collectively decide the laws that govern them. This, however, has become only a lightly referenced figure in the democratic nations of the world as their vision of democracy largely involves the use of representatives of the people instead of direct voting. “Freedom of choice in a democracy must include the freedom not to choose” (Engelen, 2007); this seems to be the argument that this compulsory voting is a violation of liberty. The Australian government imposes a series of “legal sanctions” (Orr, 2011) on those who find this side of compulsory voting compelling and act in refutation of it by not attending the polls. Ultimately, though, this is just a flaw in the components of democracy because of the basis on which democracies rely on their citizens to express their opinions through votes. Along with this opposition to compulsory voting there is also the belief that there is a large presence of ill-informed voters. When citizens are forced to vote without remembering or knowing who or what they are voting for, democracy partly fails. This is an important argument for those who oppose compulsory voting, as is often the case. This democracy and the laws that govern it here in Australia are not set up to address this situation, and this is an urgent current issue. The media is currently held primarily responsible for informing the public about what and who represents which issues regarding the country's politics. Thanks to this voting mandate, a significant number of votes are transferred to candidates about whom voters know little or nothing. These opponents of compulsory voting widely recognize this and believe that if people were given the right to vote, they might choose not to vote if they were not adequately informed about the election. When elections are close and only a few votes make a significant difference in determining the prevailing party, this particular view on compulsory voting becomes increasingly relevant to consider. This misinformation and misinformed era that exists in Australia has led to the need for the government to recognize this fact, yet there is yet another primary reason regarding opposition to compulsory voting. The next main reason that fills the opposition is largely known as “donkey voting” (Engelen, 2007). Donkey voting occurs when “we force citizens… to participate [in voting], even when they don't have an opinion or don't want to express one… [which] results in a greater number of protest votes.” Opponents support this point by saying that when citizens freely decide to vote, it becomes more legitimate. For this reason, there is a large percentage of votes cast by donkeys in Australia, solely due to state coercion to vote, but they cannot be counted as it is almost impossible to know which ones are and which are not (Sun, 2006). It has been found that when countries abolish compulsory voting “the number of votes that do not count (invalid ballots and blank ballots) decreases by about 2%.” This is both an advantage and a disadvantage for this type of voting as generally turnout is lower for non-compulsory voting while compulsory voting results in much higher turnout. This was the topic of the debate that began in Australia in 1924, when compulsory voting was first introduced and made compulsory in all states of Australia. This being the last key reason against compulsory voting, one can finally draw a conclusion from all of these., 2007).