13NFL1-Compulsory Voting
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LEGITIMACY
LOW VOTER TURNOUT HARMS GOVERNMENTAL LEGITIMACY.
Bart Engelen 07, Research Assistant of the Fund for Scientific Research]"Why Compulsory Voting Can Enhance Democracy, Acta Politica, 2007, 42, (23-39). Political participation is also crucial for guaranteeing the legitimacy of ademocratic regime. The more citizens abstain, the more the elected bodies losetheir accountability. To illustrate the problem one can refer to elections whereonly a minority of the electorate determines the electoral result. In elections tothe European Parliament, for example, average turnout has declined systematically from 63% of all registered voters into a record low of 45.6% in (EP,
2004). As more than half of the electorate abstains in 18 of the member states, one can hardly speak of popular or majority will (Watson andTami, 2001). As democracy cannot imply that laws are enacted by legislatorsrepresenting a minority of eligible voters, one has to conclude that high turnoutlevels are necessary for any democracy claiming legitimacy.
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