Low turnout undermines the idea of representative government, DAT
Engelen, Bart. Why Compulsory Voting Can Enhance Democracy Acta Politica, 2007,
42.
The more citizens abstain, the less representative the electoral result becomes. This problem is aggravated by the fact that low voter turnout means unequal and socioeconomically biased turnout (Lijphart, 1997, 2). As
Keaney and Rogers (2006, 10) aptly summarize, international evidence shows that turnout and inequality are closely linked, and that as turnout falls so it becomes more unequal. While universal suffrage equalizes the opportunities for participation in elections (every citizen has exactly one vote, inequalities between privileged and less privileged citizens persist in the way citizens exercise such opportunities (Lijphart, 1998, 1–2; Verba,
Nie and Kim, 1978, 1–6). This forms a problem because governments normally respond to the opinions expressed by citizens in elections if you don’t vote, you don’t count (Burnham, 1987, 99). This assumption has been empirically confirmed. In their cross-country comparison, Mueller and Stratmann (2003, 2151)
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