Compulsory Voting

Este artículo reexamina la idea de Lijphart (1997) de que el voto obligatorio sea un instrumento efectivo para reducir la desigualdad del ingreso con un diseño de investigación cuasi experimental basado en la técnica de matching. Los resultados muestran que el voto obligatorio no tiene un impacto significativo sobre las políticas redistributivas. En base a la experiencia de América Latina, donde predomina el voto obligatorio junto a alta desigualdad de ingresos, el artículo sostiene que el problema empírico del argumento lijphartiano se encuentra en el supuesto implícito de la existencia de un vínculo programático entre políticos y electores. Se sugiere como hipótesis alternativa que la combinación de alta participación electoral y alta desigualdad puede deberse a la prevalencia de un vínculo clientelar, frecuente en democracias con instituciones débiles.

Mandatory voting has received public and scholarly interest as a solution for problems of unequal representation and policies that advantage the wealthy. Yet some oppose mandatory voting because it seems to coerce political expression, in violation of the human right to free expression. This article fundamentally reinterprets the point of mandatory voting as serving the self-identified purposes of citizens and so minimizes concerns about coercion. It uses survey evidence to show that mandatory voting can help the large majority of American citizens who believe they should vote to do so, thereby functioning as a precommitment mechanism. For the minority who do not think they should vote, mandatory voting functions as a nudge to surveillance which helps citizens protect their interests, whatever they may be, through encouraging surveillance of political actors. The argument concludes that mandatory voting would make all citizens better off by their own lights and without troubling coercion.

In her chapter, Anthoula Malkopoulou examines the history of compulsory voting in Europe by specifically revisiting the debates over the practice in Belgium and France at the turn of the twentieth century. Malkopoulou especially focuses on two principal arguments advanced in favour of compulsory voting in these historical debates: the ideas of ‘true’, ‘exact’, ‘accurate’ and ‘mirror’ representation, to which compulsory voting allegedly contributes; and the view that compulsory voting brings out the moderate vote. Furthermore, Malkopoulou argues, these arguments can also provide valuable conceptual resources for thinking about ways of countering the crisis of contemporary democracies.

Many academic and popular writers have argued that 'compulsory voting' is an illusion in Australia because it is not compulsory to fill out the ballot-paper. This is the orthodox assumption. I argue that this view is mistaken, and that the duty to vote clearly includes the marking of the paper. Whether and how the requirement is able to be enforced is a completely different question from whether it is indeed a requirement.

Les électeurs choisissent-ils le parti qui leur correspond le mieux ? Disposer de plus d'informations entraîne-t-il plus d'hésitations avant de voter ? Comment les électeurs belges perçoivent-ils la démocratie ? Lors des dernières élections, plus de quarante pour cent des électeurs ont voté pour un autre parti que celui qu'ils avaient soutenu au scrutin précédent. Comment peut-on interpréter cette observation factuelle ? Qu'est-ce que cela nous apprend sur les réflexions des électeurs et sur l'état de notre système politique ? Décrypter l'électeur offre une vue complète sur les évolutions du paysage électoral belge. Les principaux chiffres et faits du dernier scrutin electoral sont présentés et disséqués. En outre, le livre propose toute une série d'analyses complémentaires sur des sujets comme les attitudes sousjacentes des électeurs, le débat communautaire ou le vote préférentiel. Des différences entre la Wallonie et la Flandre à la confiance des électeurs dans la démocratie : les principaux politologues belges proposent dans cet ouvrage l'une des synthèses les plus détaillées de l'électeur belge jamais publiée.

Sortition, or the selection of political officers by lot, has its antecedent in the direct democratic tradition of ancient Athens. Its transfer into a modern context of representative democracy poses rightful scepticism not only about the practical difficulties, but more so about the theoretical inconsistencies that arise. Modern systems of political representation are based on the aristocratic idea of ‘government by the best’, who are to be selected through a competitive call for candidates (Manin 1997). Sortition, on the other hand, replaces this aristocratic criterion of competition and evaluative election with the democratic mechanics of direct and equal distribution of political office by chance. Hence, the very expression ‘democratic (s)election’ includes a paradoxical contradiction in terms, between the democratic concept of equal access to public office and the aristocratic idea of government by the (s)elected best.

My aim in this chapter is to shed some light into this contradiction by critically discussing the benefits and pitfalls of using sortition today, compared to voting and the general effects of electoral representation. More specifically, my arguments are divided in four sections. I begin by addressing the reasons that drive klerotarians away from electoral representation (1). Next, I consider alternative modes of political ‘outsourcing’, such as the inclusion of civil society actors or the use of quotas (2). I continue by discussing the democratic legitimacy of sortition by dividing the subject in two questions: (a) political equality and (b) political participation (3). Last, I focus on the type of political representation that the lot produces, viewed from the perspectives of descriptiveness, authorization and accountability (4). In conclusion, I suggest that lotteries may offer valuable improvement to current practices of democratic selection, but only if special measures are taken to compensate for the limitations they entail.

El cambio de las reglas electorales ha generado mucha investigación en Europa y, recientemente, en América Latina, aun cuando las reformas
han sido efectuadas en sentidos diferentes. Mientras en los países europeos los sistemas electorales tendieron a ser conservadores, muy estables y resistentes al cambio (Nohlen 1984, Lijphart 1995, Katz 2005, Rahat 2011), el ritmo reformista en América Latina ha sido mucho mayor, incluso llegando a ser frenético en algunos países (Negretto 2010, Marenco 2009, Freidenberg y Došek 2015). El hecho de que se tienda a modificar las reglas de juego de manera reiterada pone en cuestión la supuesta estabilidad de los sistemas políticos y condiciona el comportamiento de los actores que participan en ellos, por la transformación constante de los incentivos.

As a democratic institution, compulsory voting has its origins in the oldest European democracy, Athens. Greek philosophy is known for the significance it attaches to political engagement, which forms the backbone of the classical republican tradition. Despite the widely held view that political participation in Athenian democracy was mostly voluntary, ancient sources do provide evidence that such participation was in some cases legally enforced. Similarly, an institutional obligation to participate directly in the decision- making of small-scale political units survived in medieval and early modern communities. Later on, as modern democracies grew larger and became more representative, participation in indirect structures of decision-making contin- ued to be thought of as enforceable, or at least as a moral duty.

"Presentations of the history of Australian democracy inevitably dwell on the innovative and early democratic practices of the colonies and, later, the nation. Compulsory voting is typically placed in this frame. This article challenges three key pillars of the accepted narrative of the Australian adoption of compulsory voting by placing nineteenth-century debates over the mandatory franchise in the Australian colonies in the context of other similar democracies in North America. It shows that compulsory voting debates in the colonies were contentious, protracted and motivated by negative experiences of democracy and a desire to limit or order democracy to ensure that engaged minorities did not overwhelm an apathetic majority.

Jason Brennan and Lisa Hill
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014

The idea of imposing on citizens a legal requirement to show up at the polls, and asking them to pay a fine if they fail to do so, has received significant traction over the last two decades. In spite (or because) of an increasing amount of empirical and theoretical literature on the subject, disagreement on the justifiability of the practice seems to have become ever so wide, which is why this co-authored publication is highly topical.

In this article Jason Brennan’s arguments about the moral duties relating to our practice of voting are examined. These arguments provide an epistocratic approach of politics and present a conception of abstention at four levels: abstention as a personal choice, as a moral responsibility, as a duty legally enforceable and as an obligation decided by lot. The contrast with John Stuart Mill’s positions helps to highlight the postdemocratic ambivalences and the latent paternalism behind Brennan’s rejection of massive voting and electoral democracy. A deliberative, Millian-inspired understanding of abstention also allows questioning the assumption in Brennan’s successive proposals that there is no significant loss in overlooking the political valence of qualified abstention.

Precies een jaar na de regionale verkiezingen van 7 juni 2009 verschijnt bij VUBPRESS het boek De stemmen van het volk van de interuniversitaire onderzoeksgroep PARTIREP gecoördineerd door prof. Kris Deschouwer (VUB). Het doet enkele opmerkelijke vaststellingen over het stemgedrag van de Belgische kiezer. Zo blijken partijen als VB en LDD helemaal niet zoveel Vlaamsgezinde kiezers aan te trekken als ze zelf doen uitschijnen, en zou de afschaffing van de kiesplicht weinig veranderen aan het politieke landschap. En hoewel er zich bij elke verkiezing schijnbaar grote en plotse verschuivingen voordoen, zijn deze in werkelijkheid erg oppervlakkig en zeker niet het gevolg van een veranderde samenleving. Vier politicologen van de Vrije Universiteit Brussel, de Université Libre de Bruxelles, de KU Leuven en de Universiteit Antwerpen hebben de gewestverkiezingen van 2009 aangegrepen voor een grondige studie over het stemgedrag van de Vlaamse en Waalse kiezers. Ze ondervroegen een representatieve groep kiezers vlak voor én meteen na de verkiezingen. De resultaten van dit onderzoek verschijnen nu gebundeld in het boek De stemmen van het volk, en bieden een interessante kijk in de hoofden van de Belgische kiezers. Uit de conclusies kunnen heel wat lessen getrokken worden voor de verkiezingen van volgende week. Dit boek bespreekt verder ook de mogelijke gevolgen van de afschaffing van de opkomstplicht, de mate waarin mensen over politiek praten, de redenen waarom kiezers een voorkeurstem uitbrengen, de verwachtingen van kiezers ten opzichte van hun vertegenwoordigers en de rol die politiek dienstbetoon en verzuildheid vandaag nog spelen. Wie dus wil weten hoe een stem tot stand komt, vindt de antwoorden in dit boek.

El conjunto de trabajos que conforman este libro reflexionan acerca de la democracia y las elecciones, dos aspectos indisolublemente ligados en la realidad política actual. Los autores buscan provocar un debate en el marco de esa relación, a partir de una serie de temas que, sin ser todos los necesarios, son considerados fundamentales. Además, gran parte de las contribuciones piensan esos problemas en el contexto de la realidad política latinoamericana, algunos de cuyos autores se concentran en casos más particulares como Colombia, Chile, Brasil y México.

The 1893 Belgian parliamentary debate on compulsory voting is remarkable for the way it fuses electoral calculations and ideological arguments. The governing Catholics’ motivation to mobilize their voting clientele and protect them from forced abstention was invested with arguments about the importance of ‘accurate’ representation and true expression of the national will. Voting was re-described as a special type of right which engendered responsibilities towards non-voters, while Liberals were counter-arguing that the duty to vote was a matter of conscience and should encompass a right to abstain. This debate is key for understanding how political ideas have been used in real politics.

Under mandated choice policies, people are free to choose whichever option they prefer, but 'choosing not to choose' is penalized. In Australia, voting is mandatory, and abstaining is penalized with a fine. In New Zealand and several American states, it is mandatory for those who want to obtain a driver's license that they decide whether to register as organ donors. If they fail to do so, they will not receive a driver's license. Proponents of such policies stress that they may be the least autonomyinfringing ways of achieving some good and provide society with knowledge about people's preferences and are, partly for these reasons, preferable to employing defaults. This article compares mandated choice in voting and donor registration with respect to the ends served, how a mandated choice policy will serve these ends, the distribution of burdens and the nature of the possible options. It is argued that mandated choice is more attractive in the context of donor registration.

In this article I aim to show that compulsory voting cannot be defended on democratic grounds. In pursuing this task, I first offer a generic account of the democratic argument in favour of compulsory voting, drawing on some of the most salient recent defences of a moral duty to vote. I then offer an overarching objection which defeats both the generic form of the democratic argument for compulsory voting and its various operationalizations. The crux of the objection is that the democratic justification of a moral duty to vote is parasitical upon the existence of a moral duty to vote well. This decisively undermines the democratic argument for compulsory voting, since the latter can only be deployed as an enforcement mechanism for a duty to vote, regardless of the substantive content of that vote.

En este trabajo se explora el efecto de las instituciones electorales en la composición de los electorados, particularmente el tipo de inscripción y el carácter de voluntariedad/obligatoriedad del voto. Explotando la reciente reforma electoral en Chile a través de un diseño cuasi-experimental, se comparan la composición de los electorados antes y después de la reforma, en base a los principales predictores sugeridos por la literatura especializada. Entre los hallazgos centrales se encuentran: un fuerte efecto de la edad en ambos contextos normativos, la importancia de la educación y de atención política tras la reforma, y la heterogeneidad de estos efectos entre las generaciones políticas. Adicionalmente, se cuantifica el efecto de la reforma electoral para distintos grupos, mostrando que ésta no afectó a todos por igual. Finalmente, se concluye ofreciendo una discusión de las implicancias democráticas de la reforma electoral y sus consecuencias en el sistema político.

Au cours de ce travail, nous allons examiner le vote obligatoire en prenant le point de vue communautarien pour critiquer les libertariens sur ce sujet. Commencer avec la définition du vote obligatoire sera efficace pour comprendre mieux le sujet. Le vote obligatoire est un effet des lois qui obligent les citoyens éligibles à s’inscrire et à voter aux élections et peut imposer des sanctions à ceux qui ne le font pas. En août 2013, 22 pays prévoient le vote obligatoire et 11 d’entre eux -environ 5% de tous les membres des Nations Unies- l'appliquent. Pour les théories de la démocratie, le droit de vote est le moyen que la Constitution et la loi mettent à la disposition du citoyen pour exprimer son opinion sur les problèmes politiques soumis à son jugement et sur les candidats auxquels il estime souhaitable de confier le pouvoir. Il est faux de réduire la démocratie à juste le droit de vote, mais il ne faut pas également nier que cet instrument soit l'un des piliers de la démocratie. Pourtant le vote obligatoire est intimement lié aux débats sur l’étendue et le but du vote ou sur ce que l’on appelle parfois la «la participation électorale» .

A l’occasion de chaque élection, les cartes sont redistribuées. Des partis perdent, d’autres gagnent. Rapidement des conclusions sont tirées des résultats pour mettre en évidence ce que les électeurs ont voulu signifier précisément. Pourtant, peu après un scrutin, nous n’en savons guère sur ce qui s’est véritablement joué. Qui a voté pour quel parti ? Qui a changé de parti à cette occasion ? Pourquoi un électeur a-t-il opté pour tel(s) parti(s) et pas pour d’autres ? Sur quelles bases se sont opérés les choix ?



Ces questions peuvent être traitées sur la base d’une enquête, où un échantillon représentatif de la population électorale se voit soumettre un jeu complet de questions. Cet ouvrage présente les résultats d’une enquête de ce type menée à l’occasion des scrutins régionaux de juin 2009, en Flandre et en Wallonie. Réalisée dans le cadre du réseau scientifique PARTIREP, associant l’Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), la Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), l’Université d’Anvers et la KU Leuven, soutenu par la Politique scientifique fédérale, il décrit et explique la voix et le choix du peuple. Ces voix s’expriment parfois nettement en faveur du changement. Pour autant, les électeurs ne sont pas vraiment capricieux. Le contexte socio-économique et un certain nombre d’opinions sur l’homme et la société anticipent dans une large mesure les votes des citoyens en faveur des partis qui se disputent leurs suffrages. Les résultats de l’enquête révèlent la faiblesse du thème communautaire dans le choix des électeurs flamands et wallons, et les partis fixés sur ces thématiques engrangent des voix bien au-delà des segments électoraux qui lui portent une forte attention : en particulier, les électeurs méfiants envers le système politique. Paradoxalement pourtant, la méfiance est plus grande en Wallonie qu’en Flandre, mais les électeurs y trouvent beaucoup moins qu’en Flandre des partis porteurs de cette méfiance et surfant sur le populisme.



Ce livre examine en détail l’impact possible de la suppression du vote obligatoire, la façon dont les citoyens discutent de la politique, les raisons qui mènent au vote de préférence, l’expression des attentes des électeurs envers leurs représentants de même que l’attitude envers les services rendus par les responsable politiques. A partir d’une enquête de grande envergure menée en trois temps, ce livre offre des réponses exceptionnellement précises sur l’essence et les ressorts du comportement électoral en Wallonie et en Flandre.

The logic of uncertainty is not the logic of experience and as well as it is not the logic of chance. It is the logic of experience and chance. Experience and chance are two inseparable poles. These are two dual reflections of one essence, which is called co∼event. The theory of experience and chance is the theory of co∼events. To study the co∼events, it is not enough to study the experience and to study the chance. For this, it is necessary to study the experience and chance as a single entire, a co∼event. In other words, it is necessary to study their interaction within a co∼event. The new co∼event axiomatics and the theory of co∼events following from it were created precisely for these purposes. In this work, I am going to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new theory of co∼events in a studying the logic of uncertainty. I will do this by the example of a co∼event splitting of the logic of the Bayesian scheme, which has a long history of fierce debates between Bayesionists and frequentists. I hope the logic of the theory of experience and chance will make its modest contribution to the application of these old dual debaters.

Keywords: Eventology, event, probability, probability theory, Kolmogorov’s axiomatics, experience, chance, cause, consequence, co∼event, set of co∼events, bra-event, set of bra-events, ket-event, set of ket-events, believability, certainty, believability theory, certainty theory, theory of co∼events, theory of experience and chance, co∼event dualism, co∼event axiomatics, logic of uncertainty, logic of experience and chance, logic of cause and consequence, logic of the past and the future, Bayesian scheme.

Does compulsory voting alter the rational calculus of voting? According to the rational choice theory of voting, turnout depends on the costs and benefits of voting, the probability of casting the decisive ballot, and individuals’ sense of duty. After showing that compulsory voting boosts turnout in Latin America and the Caribbean, this Insights report examines the extent to which turnout is associated with the cost and benefits of voting and individuals’ sense of duty in countries with voluntary versus compulsory voting laws. Contrary to expectations, the analysis reveals that the factors affecting voting are nearly identical in compulsory and non-compulsory systems. In both types of countries, the wealthy, the politically engaged, the highly educated, and those who are older are more likely to go to the polls, while retired people, housewives, students, and the unemployed are less likely to vote. Finally, the report discusses
the consequences of these findings for the debate about implementing compulsory voting laws in countries with voluntary voting, or freeing citizens from the obligation to vote in countries with compulsory voting.

Over the past twenty years, the scientific community and politicians in consolidated democracies have been regularly alarmed by political and electoral participation, portrayed as undergoing a brutal and linear decline. Each election is now scrutinized in terms not only of its results but also of its level of electoral turnout. This paper deals with two important issues—the reality of changes in electoral turnout in Europe and the impact of the institutional constraint of compulsory voting in voter turnout levels—through an analysis of 402 elections held in thirty-five States from 1944 until December, the 31st 2009. We do ob- serve a contemporary erosion of voter turnout but at this stage voters are not so impossible to find as some claim they are. Furthermore, the assumption that interest in, and the importance of, compulsory voting as an institutional constraint encouraging voter turnout is confirmed.

One does not need to be a political expert to see that democracy around the world faces serious challenges. Of course, there is no magic solution, but over two decades ago political scientist Arend Lijphart argued that compulsory voting fosters voter turnout and, along with progressive parties, should, in theory, help to reduce socioeconomic inequalities. Indeed, compulsory voting has long been used in some of the most advanced democracies in the world, such as Australia and Belgium. However, it is most common in Latin America, which is among
the most unequal regions. Many Latin American countries, such as Brazil, experience the highest income inequality in the world.

งานวิจัยนี้ทำการศึกษารูปแบบวิธีการลงคะแนนเสียงเลือกตั้งและวิธีการในการชดเชยให้ผู้มาใช้สิทธิลงคะแนนเลือกตั้งโดยรัฐของกลุ่มประเทศที่มีประชาธิปไตยระดับแนวหน้า เพื่อเปรียบเทียบข้อดี-ข้อเสีย ผลกระทบที่เกิดขึ้น ทั้งในแง่ปริมาณ เช่น จำนวนผู้ออกมาใช้สิทธิ และเชิงคุณภาพ เช่น ระดับการพัฒนาประชาธิปไตยของประเทศโดยภาพรวม และบริบทที่เหมาะสมสำหรับการนำรูปแบบวิธีการลงคะแนนเสียงเลือกตั้งและมาตรการ ในการชดเชยให้ผู้มาใช้สิทธิลงคะแนนเลือกตั้งโดยรัฐแต่ละแนวทางไปใช้ ตลอดจนการทบทวนบทเรียนเกี่ยวกับรูปแบบ วิธีการ และมาตรการที่ประเทศไทยเคยใช้ เพื่อพิจารณาทางเลือกที่เป็นไปได้สำหรับการพัฒนาปรับปรุงรูปแบบวิธีการลงคะแนนเสียงเลือกตั้ง รวมถึงวิธีการที่เหมาะสมในการชดเชยให้ผู้มาใช้สิทธิลงคะแนนเลือกตั้งของประเทศไทย

Is criminal disenfranchisement compatible with a democratic political order? This article considers this question in light of a recently developed view that criminal disenfranchisement is justified because it expresses our commitment to democratic values. We call this view expressive disenfranchisement and refer to the general conception in which it is grounded as democratic expressivism . Contra supporters of expressive
disenfranchisement, we argue that democratic expressivism does not offer a sound justification of criminal disenfranchisement. Additionally, we argue that, insofar as one really cares about answering serious criminal wrongs via an expression of democratic values, criminal disenfranchisement should be abandoned and replaced with a policy that temporarily obliges
the relevant criminals to vote. Democratic expressivists should, in other words, move from supporting the disenfranchisement of serious offenders to endorsing a policy of compulsory criminal voting for a finite period of time.

The paper denies that art. 15 of the chilean Constitution establishes a right not to vote. What is instead protected by this article is the citizen’s electoral decision-making process. Under this perspective are considered several statements from chilean electoral system. Since a constitutional right not to vote is not included in it, any new legal statement that establishes compulsory voting
would involve no transgression to art. 15 of the Constitution.

En esta tesis se explora la participación electoral en Chile en el período post-autoritario, poniendo énfasis en la composición del electorado y los efectos de la reforma electoral de 2011, que reemplazó el sistema de inscripción voluntaria y votación obligatoria por uno de inscripción automática y votación voluntaria. Un primer capítulo se dedica a describir el contexto histórico y las particularidades propias de la relación de los chilenos con el voto, con especial dedicación a las elecciones municipales. Luego, un segundo capítulo discute las principales teorías que explican la asistencia de los ciudadanos a las urnas, as como intenta deducir cómo estas ideas podrían aplicarse para el caso chileno. Un tercer capítulo aborda la importancia de las instituciones electorales en los niveles de participación y la composición de los electorados, centrando la discusión en las diferencias que se dan en regímenes de voto voluntario y compulsivo. De la literatura revisada en el segundo y tercer capítulo se extraen hipótesis empíricas a contrastar en el caso de estudio. Luego, una nueva sección describe la metodología utilizada para analizar el caso de estudio. Se propone una aproximación cuasi-experimental que compare los patrones de participación en la ultima elección municipal con voto obligatorio (2008) y la primera con voto voluntario (2012) mediante el uso de encuestas post-electorales. En el capítulo siguiente se exponen los resultados de los análisis estadísticos. A partir de estos resultados se ofrecen una serie de conclusiones sustantivas relativas a los niveles de participación y representación electoral, a saber: (1) la importancia de las generaciones políticas, (2) el rol del status socio-económico, y (3) la selectividad actitudinal del electorado. Finalmente, se discuten las implicancias normativas de estos resultados para el sistema democrático y la sociedad chilena.