Foundation Briefs Advanced Level Sept/Oct 2013 Brief
Voting is an expressive act, showing support fora candidate or issue. RMF
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| Voting is an expressive act, showing support fora candidate or issue. RMF Lomasky, Loren. DO VOTERS GET WHAT THEY WANT Reason Magazine. November 1992. I propose that voting, like cheering at a football game or sending a get-well card, should be understood as primarily an expressive rather than an instrumental activity. One votes for Alfred E. Neuman rather than Pat Paulsen as an act of expressing support for Neuman rather than as a deliberate attempt to raise the likelihood of Neuman's victory. Rational individuals will indeed vote provided that the value they assign to the expressive returns obtained through a vote is greater than the costs thereby incurred. Despite the exceedingly remote chance of swinging the election, voting is as rational as attending football games and cheering lustily for one's team (and sitting out an election is as rational as spending one's Saturday gardening if one prefers flowers to football. This expressive theory of voting avoids the schizophrenia of the standard self-interest theory of politics. Those who argue for compulsory voting are arguing that voting is required in order to decide an issue orb belection. Citizens ought to cast a vote to protector advance their interests. Even implied in a duty to vote is that decisions must be made by the voter. But as these two pieces of evidence help to explain, that is not the reality of voting. Casting a vote does not decide the outcome of the election. Your one vote is too small. Instead, it is merely the expression of a person who gets utility from such an expression. It is therefore a personal act of consumption, not a public act helping society. Thus, such an act is outside the scope of governmental compulsion. Liberty should not be curtailed in the name of forcing people to make Download 0.95 Mb. Share with your friends:
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