Compulsory Voting: For and Against

✍ Scribed by Jason Brennan and Lisa Hill

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 232
• Edition: First
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In Compulsory Voting: For and Against, two leading political theorists debate whether compulsory voting is the solution to the decline in overall voter turnout. Jason Brennan argues that compulsory voting will not only fail to make governments more responsive to the needs of the disadvantaged, but that it might actually harm them. Lisa Hill argues that compulsory voting makes the political system more democratic and helps the most vulnerable citizens ensure that government will better serve their interests.

✦ Table of Contents

Part I. Medicine Worse Than the Disease? Against Compulsory Voting Jason Brennan
1. The Heavy Burden of Proof 03
2. Democratic Legitimacy and the Consequences of Compulsion 25
3. Do Your Share or Else 62
4. Should We Force the Drunk to Drive? 83

Part II. Compulsory Voting Defended Lisa Hill
5. Compulsory Voting: Background, Effects, Feasibility, and Basic Premises 111
6. Turnout, Abstention, and Democratic Legitimacy 125
7. Is Compulsory Voting an Unjustified Burden on Personal Autonomy? Is There a Right Not to Vote? 154
8. Is Requiring People to Vote Contrary to Democratic Values? 174
9. Conclusion 196

Bibliography Index