voting, compared to other forms of political activity. So it is doubtful that the natural duty to support just institutions can justify legal duties to vote, even though it may sometimes give us morally compelling reasons to vote in some elections.
Living in a liberal democracy allows citizens to choose to avoid politics JMR
Brennan, Jason. Polluting the Polls When Citizens should Not Vote Australasian
Journal of Philosophy. Dec. 2009. Pg 544.
To live in a well-functioning liberal democracy is a great gift and something citizens should be thankful for. Yet one reason liberal democracy is such a great gift is that it does not require us to be political animals. It makes space for many ways of life, including avowedly nonpolitical lives. In parallel, we might say that a good feature of well-functioning markets is that they make people rich enough to afford to engage in non-market activities and even in some cases to avoid the market altogether. A good liberal democracy would make people safe enough in their status as free and equal citizens that they could freely choose to avoid politics. Liberal democracy is an important public good. We should all do our part to maintain it. One way a person can do his part is by bowing out. A bad vote cancels a good vote. If a good vote is a gift to society, avoiding a bad vote is also a kind of gift. In fact, using Lomasky and Brennan’s formulae, we can construct scenarios under which avoiding a bad vote has the same expected value as a making a good vote.
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