Mandatory Voting – My Experience in Australia – week3
In my second semester of third year, I had the opportunity to go on exchange to Sydney Australia. This was a fantastic opportunity for a variety of reasons but i suppose the one most relevant to this course was that I was able to see first hand how Australian politics differed from Canadian. It was a really good comparative experience because of the noted similarities between the two countries. Namely, both are parliamentary democracies based of the Westminster system, both are federal systems of governance, and both occupy the ‘middle power’ status that lies between superpower and insignificance. I also had the fortune of being in Australia during one of their elections. I noticed that politics seemed to have a more prominent role in everyday life in Australia than in Canada. I am comparing the two countries the way they are at election time of course. For example, dinner conversations, or debates occurring on a Friday night over a beer seemed to focus on the latest outrageous move of Julia Gillard or the controversial refugee issue more so than it would in Canada. People in general seemed more well versed in the current national political issues and seemed to take sides more readily than I observed at home. These were young people, between the ages of 19-25, and the vast majority of them were not political science majors or even liberal arts students. Yet they seemed more interested in the issues at hand than I noticed in Canada. This is not to say that they had more cosmopolitan views, far from it. Everyone had an opinion and I heard some of the most boorish arguments regarding politics as I have ever. Everyone seemed to follow politics. Is this because Australian politics are simply more exciting? Are their leaders more charismatic and putative? Does the media pay more attention to politics? All of these are reasonable arguments but are very hard to quantify to make an effective comparison to other Westminster democracies. As the title of this blog entry suggests, I am taking the mandatory voting angle on this issue. Yes, every qualified voter in Australia has a duty to vote. Failure to do so results in some sort of punishment, usually a hefty fine in the hundreds of dollars. Not everyone votes, of course. I was able to see some striking cases of voter apathy. Some couldn’t be bothered to go to a polling station and preferred to take the fine, despite the fact the polling station was shockingly close to the college I inhabited. For the most part, however, people went to vote. They made a day of it. Friends would go and vote together and then take that opportunity to socialize, grab a beer (as Aussies love having an excuse to do), or go to dinner. It seemed like a genuine cultural difference that was brought about by mandatory voting laws. The election I saw received a 93% voter turnout compared with under 60% in Canada. Presumably the fines levied from the remaining 7% went a long way to paying for the immense cost of an election. This is one of the arguments for mandatory voting, but not the most convincing by far. As I previously mentioned, I think this makes people more genuinely interested in politics, and Australian culture as a result reflects this. When socializing with friends, the upcoming election can always be a topic to discuss as nobody can conceivably cop out of the conversation by saying “I don’t vote” without sounding irrational and lazy. Professor Nyblade’s post about declining civic participation saw education as being both the problem and solution for this trend of voter apathy. I argue, however, that by situating it in a social context, politics becomes something which one internalizes and at some level, ironically, it doesn’t feel compulsory anymore. I feel like in Canada, you cast a vote if you feel strongly one way or another, given that voting is not mandatory. Since there is no obligation, or coercive measure, people might not talk of politics as much in preparation for an election, as they have no real reason to if it is outside their bounds of interest. Essentially, optional voting means that people are only exposed to politics and think about issues if they choose to. In Australia it seems it is more or less unavoidable.
There are arguments against mandatory voting, however, and I also got to see those in action as well. I was pretty shocked when some people weighed into a political conversation over dinner who knew less about Australian politics than I did! These were presumably people who just liked hearing their own voice and would have participiated in any conversation regardless of the topic. Their lack of knowing the first thing about any of the important issues indicates to me that they would not vote if they weren’t forced to. As much as I am an advocate of civic participation, there are people who steer clear of politics for good reason, both for themselves and the polity at large. For the most part, these people just cast their vote in a way to be deliberately controversial, picking a fringe candidate, usually the radical equivalent of Canada’s marijuana party, just to say that they did. This is a problem in Australia precisely because these are not wasted ballots as they might be in Canada. Many of the Australian Houses, including the federal senate, use a proportional representation scheme to allocate seats. This means that if 5% of the idiots pick the idiot party, then the idiot party has 5% of the seats, even if they don’t have a majority in any one area! In Canada, the idiot party wouldn’t stand a chance in our first past the post system, both because they cant get a majority, and that the idiot party’s voter base rarely turns out to vote.
Maybe I’ve sounded a bit elitist and aloof in this last paragraph but it was to prove a point. There are arguments for and against mandatory voting, but all in all, I believe it is better to have everyone talking about politics, even the idiots, than have nobody care. I feel that the mandatory voting system that Australia has serves to increase civic participation both by increasing voter turnout, but more importantly, tricking people into talking about politics in a social setting, which makes them care. I hope to return there some day, and mail in my Canadian ballots.
January 17th, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Interesting take on the arguments for and against mandatory voting Justin. In my country (Singapore), we have mandatory voting and we adopt the Westminster Parliamentary system as well, albeit with some variation.
As voting is compulsory, voters who do not turn off will get their names struck off the electoral registar and will be thus ineligible to vote. A penalty of around US$40 is levied on the individual for his name to be reinstated in the registar. My view on why we have to make voting compulsory is that, generally the population is politically apathetic. The saying goes, as long as it works, why change it. Nonetheless, I agree with you absolutely on the point that mandatory voting facilitates active discussion amongst the citizens as well as I feel, making the different parties ‘work harder’ for the vote.
But I wonder, is making voting mandatory defeating the purpose of what a democracy entails? As an individual is sovereign, he/she should be able to choose whether he/she wants to vote or not. In fact, not voting at all can be a vote in itself.
January 17th, 2012 at 7:32 pm
I agree that this definitely is an issue, But for kicks, I’ll play the devil’s advocate. I propose that an individual is sovereign only if he/she exercises this sovereignty, in a democracy this is by voting. By the same logic, a state isn’t a sovereign one unless it presumes and practices control over its territory and citizens and is recognized as such by those citizens. Any organization that does not do this cannot rightly be called sovereign. Similarly, a citizen in a democracy who doesn’t vote also doesn’t practice his/her sovereign control via voting, also can’t be categorized as such.
agree or disagree, I myself lie somewhere in the middle. I think voting is something one must do if he/she plans to be critical of government in any way.
thanks for your reply
January 24th, 2012 at 5:36 pm
I’m Australian and I disagree with the comment that “Australians seem more well versed in current national political issues” due primarily to the astounding amount of ignorance with which a large number of Australians perceive domestic politics. For example, the asylum seeker issue, in reality, is not an issue at all; the number of people who actually arrive seeking asylum in Australia is not an unsustainable amount and moreover, Australia needs an influx of unskilled workers, however it has become a political issue due to the xenophobia in Australia that appeals to the lowest common denominator. For all the elections I can remember, a deciding factor has been asylum seekers, with both parties pledging to “keep the boats out”; clearly a disproportionate response to a issue that was politically fabricated during the Howard Government to steal ideological support from the ultra-conservative (polite phrasing of racist) One Nation party.
Moreover, ignorance in Australian politics is also revealed by the fact that individuals will often vote for a party without knowing its actual policies. For example, the Australian Greens party, that had unprecedented success in the most recent Federal Election, ran solely on the campaign of environmental change (without actually detailing how; keeping in mind that the Greens blocked a previous attempt at installing a ETS by the Rudd Government), moreover their lesser-known policies, such as government subsidies of heroin for addicts and the zero-economic growth policy, are completely unknown to most supporters. Australian politics is hardly sophisticated, with election campaigns being run primarily on cheap slogans without any real policy analysis. A large number of people who are aware of the politics of the major parties are disillusioned by the poor leadership and policies; constituting the 6% (I think) number of intentional informal votes at the last election.
However, I do agree that the 7% of people who don’t turn up to vote at all (and get a fine) are idiots, as there are polling stations everywhere.
February 26th, 2012 at 4:05 pm
correct. i support txpascoe’s idea. but are you sure what you are saying is right/wrong?