Does Nonvoting Hurt Democracy?

648 Words2 Pages

Does Nonvoting Hurt Democracy? Should we have the freedom to chose weather we vote or not? Currently the United States allows citizens not to vote, but some believe that this makes our politics undemocratic. Some think forcing people to vote is against the freedoms we have today. In the following essay, I will give the views of Arend Lijphart and Austin Ranney about these topics. Austin Ranney does not dread that low voting is hurting American democracy. Arend Lijphart believes that democracy is meaningless without voting. The fact that to many people do not vote for Presidential or Congressional elections concerns him. With numbers like 49 and 55 percent of the eligible population voting on Presidential elections, Lijphart questions the actual democracy in America. Low voting turnouts is giving large groups more control over government ideals. Lijphart thinks the best way to solve this problem is to raise turnouts in a variety of ways. Things like weekend voting and easier ways of acquiring absentee ballots will increase the number of voters. Also, having multiple elect...

Show More
Related

  • Explain the low turnout in U.S. elections.

    1742 Words  | 4 Pages

    "Miller light and bud light…either way you end up with a mighty weak beer!" This is how Jim Hightower (a Texan populist speaker) described the choices that the U.S. electorate had in the 2000 elections. This insinuates that there is a clear lack of distinction between the parties. Along with numerous others, this is one of the reasons why the turnout is so low in the U.S. elections. In trying to explain the low figures at the U.S. elections, analysts have called American voters apathetic to indifferent to downright lazy. I disagree that the 50% (in recent elections) of voters that fail to turnout to vote are lazy and that they have just reason not too. I will also show that the problem lies within the system itself in that the institutional arrangements, electoral and governmental, do not create an environment that is conducive to mass participation. I will address these main issues and several others that have an effect on voter participation. In doing so I will compare America to other established democracies.

    Read More

  • Power Struggles in Capitalist Democracies and the Fate of American Labor Unions

    3479 Words  | 7 Pages

    Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. Why Americans Don't Vote. New York: Pantheon, 1989.

    Read More

  • Voting Turnout Proposal

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Chartist movement (a working class political movement) in 1840 believed “People had no one else but themselves to blame for the actions of their politicians” (Nash). What Mr. Nash and the chartist movement believe couldn’t be more on the spot. This country has gotten to the point where people find it hard to walk down their street to the elementary school where the voting polls are, and take a few minutes to cast a vote. A vote that millions of people around the world wish they were able to have them selves. With all the political suffrage that goes on through the world and people forced to love a leader, these no-shows should be thankful to live in a democracy. A place where elections aren’t rigged and the people are truly heard. This is why the topic of voting turnout needs to be raised. Also it’s very annoying to hear people complaining about our President when they did not even vote. It’s a very bad habit to not vote, and it needs to change with the younger citizens of this country. Helping younger people see the importance of voting needs to start with technological and educational ideas while expanding all the way to social event ideas. Only then will America’s ability to find answers to voting turnout increase.

    Read More

  • Voting Participation in the United States

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...er to understand why voter turnout is so low. As a society we must take into consideration all of these and find ways to promote higher turnout rates, whether it be through social reform programs to increase citizens socioeconomic status, more education, better political environments at the home and community level, or less restrictions on voting. In order for our society to effectively and efficiently function we must participate in our democratic system at higher percentages than an average participation of roughly 40 percent.

    Read More

  • Required To Vote Dbq

    1321 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recently, only 60% of registered voters have actually voted in presidential elections. This brings up the question: should Americans be required to vote? This question receives very mixed answers. Many Americans believe that they should have the choice and the freedom to vote or not; many Americans also believe that mandatory, or required, voting is simply a civic duty. Currently, American citizens are not required to vote. Citizens seem to like this system, but because voting is not mandatory, the amount of citizens that vote in elections is rather low. Americans should not be required to vote because it forces people to vote that are uninterested, makes citizens unhappy, and damages other people’s votes.

    Read More

  • Voter Turnout Assignment

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    Voting is one of the citizens’ rights living in a country. In the past, not everyone can vote. Voting used to be for only white American men. However, our ancestors fought for that rights. Eventually, any American who are older than eighteen can vote, despite their race or gender. In addition, voter turnout is used to keep track of the voting. It is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. Unfortunately, the voter turnout has been decreasing over time, and it means that there are less and fewer people who actually show up and vote. This essay will discuss the voter turnout in Harris County, Texas.

    Read More

  • Essay On Voter Turnout

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    The U.S. is not known for high voter turnout. Consistently, the United States has fallen short in comparison to other “well-established democracies” (Fair Vote). United States has one of the lowest

    Read More

  • New National Holiday: Implementing Election Day as a Holiday

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    A democracy is a type of government in which the people rule; it is adopted by many countries across the world (Kollman, 2012: 25). One way people influence the government is by actively participating in elections and nominating individuals whom they wish would serve the country. These people – government servants: mayors, senators, presidents, etc. - represent the people and their ideologies. Some countries honor the election system more than others and The United States of America is one of them. This is why voter turnout is important and has become an issue addressed by many political parties and their candidates with The United States having one of the lowest turnouts. There are many components that factor into this decline but the most important one is the time and more specifically the day elections take place (Shaw, 2014). I believe that in order to stress the importance of electing officials and encouraging citizens of the states to vote, Election day should be declared a national holiday and be moved from Tuesdays to Mondays (Kollman, 2012: 330).

    Read More

  • Voter Turnout?

    2036 Words  | 5 Pages

    Voter turnout has been declining in the United States throughout history through the potential voters’ personal choice not to vote and ineligibility. According to research a large percentage of individuals are not voting because political parties fail to appeal to the voters and this leads to the voting population losing interest in the campaign, while others postpone registering and by the time they realize their delay the election is upon them.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jonathan Kozol's The Human Cost Of An Iliterate Society

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Illiterate citizens seldom vote. Those who do are forced to cast a vote of questionable worth. They cannot make informed decisions based on serious print information. More frequently, they vote for a face, a smile, or a style, not for a mind or character or body of beliefs. Sometimes the can be alerted to their interests by aggressive voter education

    Read More

  • Improving Voter Turnout Essay

    505 Words  | 2 Pages

    The decline in voter participation consider by many scholars to start shortly after World War II, however between the years of 1960-1974 American voters started to lose trust of the national government. Ahead only of Italy in 1974 (Powell, 1986, p. 18) and dropped just below 10% up until 1980. However, trust was the least important of the four attitude variables (Powell, 1986, pp. 18-19). So the challenge is how best do we get better voter turnout not just solely when we elect a new President, but during the mid-term elections as well. Many Representatives (Democrats) would argue that our laws on registration are too strict and limit turnout of elderly, poor and minority voters. Party competition to mobilize lower class voters, for example

    Read More

  • The Role Of Voting In The United States

    1993 Words  | 4 Pages

    With the last eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency, the percentage of eligible voters that actually vote in the U.S. General and Primary elections has been steadily declining at an unprecedented rate that hasn’t been seen in decades. Various socioeconomic factors come to affect these percentages like age, race and gender. The lack of political efficacy also has a noticeable effect in the electorate, caused by opposition towards the democratic and republican party but, there are many ways we can increase the public's interests in politics and voting.

    Read More

  • Political Participation In The United States

    1412 Words  | 3 Pages

    Political participation is at an extremely low rate in the United States. According to Regan, only around fifty-three percent of registered voters actually turned up to the voting booth to cast their votes in the 2016 presidential election (2016). The causation of this epidemic can be explained using numerous trends found throughout American society. Although voting is only one facet of participation in politics, likewise involvement through other means is also very low. This causes numerous complications in regards to our democratic process. These problems could be resolved through the raising of participation. Although this process of getting the American public to get more involved in politics has proven to be problematic, the implementation

    Read More

  • The Importance of Voting

    449 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Importance of Voting If you were to ask me a few years ago why voting was important, I wouldn't really have the proper grasp as to why you should. A few years ago, what was on television that night was important to me, American politics were only the video clips that my father watched on the news before I was able to take over with MTV and vegetate mindlessly. Politics was a very foreign concept to me; I always saw it as a very complicated issue. Perhaps due to the fact that whenever a child asks an adult, "What is the difference between a Democrat and a Communist?" They would give some round about response totally evading the actual answer, only so they could be politically correct and protect any actual real information entering their child's head, for example, they reply with, "

    Read More

  • Democratic Participation

    1343 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...y in the lower and middle class, who would not have to worry about taking time off of work or any other time commitments. In addition, by enacting Election Day voter registration, giving citizens a chance to vote until the end, making so they cannot use the excuse, “they forgot to register”. Both of these reforms could help reinforce the importance of politics and make it easier for citizens of all social classes to be informed or inspired civic participators. Although, some may be burned out with politics and may not see the importance of participating in the electoral process, it is vital that the United States works on reversing that trend. For a democracy to be strong and respected, it needs as many different voices and opinions as possible, and increasing voter participation is the first step in making the United States’ democracy stronger and more respected.

    Read More

More about Does Nonvoting Hurt Democracy?

Open Document