Saturday, September 17, 2005

Why low voter turnout is good

In response to the second-lowest postwar turnout ... Productivity shock argues that

Many negative factors can deter voting in troubled democracies (e.g., fears of violence or political retribution), but in mature democracies I think declining voter turnout should be seen as an encouraging sign for those societies. It's healthy when one feels less social pressure to waste time pretending that he or she has any chance of determining the outcome...

I might add that it is a healthy sign if it is not worth our time to vote

1) because that is generaly speaking a rational decision - the value of your individual vote is quite low
and
2) It shows that the people not voting are not all that scared of the other option OR the people not voting are wingnuts who think both parties are identical.

Either way I am reasonably happy.

What I am not arguing for higher voter turnout? what if no one voted? get over it....
We are very far from the bottom of the slippery slope where only one person votes so no need to break out the thought police.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home