Thoughts on democracy

Is it rational to vote?

Obviously in some cases it is rational to vote, but let’s choose a fairly realistic situation: voting is none compulsory and about 20 million people vote. In no case will an election ever be determined by a single vote.

In this case, is it rational to vote?

You can suggest all sorts of additions to the scenario, for example, “well me voting encourages others to vote”, but this really misses the point. Especially as the flow on effects of your vote are still likely to be negligible.

A case can be made that even one more vote makes the government feel more compelled to honour its election promises. This seems doubtful to me but even so, on a cost benefits analysis, is voting worthwhile. You could spend that time doing some other political or social activity which might have more of an affect.

Is democracy an instrumental or intrinsic good

Secondly, for those that believe democracy is a good thing (most/all people who will reach this blog, I imagine), do you believe it is an intrinsic or instrumental good. That is to say, is having a say in your government valuable in and of itself, or is it valuable because it leads to other goods (ie. leads to accountability of government and policies that benefit the majority)? I have to say, at least in the abstract, I don’t believe that it is an intrinsic good. If everyone could be twice as happy (literally everyone) through another system of government then I believe this would be a better system of government. In the practical world though, I believe that a democracy has a heavy tolerance for imperfection (ie. for corrupt officials, incorrect decisions etc) and I believe it probably is one of the most useful forms of government for achieving these intrinsic goods that government is meant to aim at.

Tags: compulsory democracy, Democracy, politics, role of government