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as politics

in australia people have to vote, if they don't vote on election day then they'll be fined.
whats the advantage and disadvantage of that.

Reply 1

abiiiii

Advantage = encourages high turnout, prevents voters not turning up when they have opinions but simply can't be bothered, incentive to learn more about politics as if you have to vote anyway you may as well make it count etc.

Disadvantage = the votes cast may be wasted as a person may not wish to be there so simply chooses a party at random which can lead to a rise in extremist parties and prevents the election being truely representative of public opinion

Reply 2

mexicanbasterd

Donkey voting: voting at random

Reply 3

Jeremy_Whiskers

Universally imposes state will on the populous, authoritarianly distasteful in this regard, prohibits literal abstentionists, those who don't believe in the system can't take that supposedly delegimitising action without financial penalty. It forces people to vote who aren't necessarily informed, and thus leads to many supposedly uneducated, uninformed and sometimes random votes, some people think this is a problem. It's hypocritical in of itself, forcing people to participate is anti-democratic.

It's a forceful legitimisation of a supposedly democratic structure, upholding rightful democracy by ensuring the presence of the majorities voice on who they want to rule them. People apparrently expend more time politically educating themselves so they can vote with relevant knowledge and a substantiated preference.

Wow i'm bored.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 4

SilverDoe21

LaRochelle123

in australia people have to vote, if they don't vote on election day then they'll be fined.
whats the advantage and disadvantage of that.

Advantage: A higher turnout, therefore a better general idea of where voters' loyalities lie.

Disadvantage: To make it 'fair' the candidates are listed in alphabetical order, so you get voters who are only voting to avoid a fine just choosing the first candidate on the list.