Swiss anti-abstention law: right or wrong?
It used to be that in Switzerland, if you didn't vote once (at the local, regional, or federal/national level), you would receive a warning; the second time you did not vote, you'd get fined; the third time you did not vote, you'd lose your voting rights. What do you think of this? right or wrong?
You canpose the problem as: Can a democracy function with not even half of the voters actually voting?
For example, say that only 50% of eligible voters do vote for one or the other candidate in a presidential election: the winner can just gather 50% of that plus1 vote and become president, i.e., 25% of potential voters. Is this a democratic vote? No, it takes a fraction of voters (here, 1 of 4) to lead us (into... what? temptation? doom? Hell?..)
Another question logically follows: SHOULD a democracy be allowed to function, electing individuals with 50% + 1 vote of say 40% of potential votes? Should we have a quorum? Or will it take a hijacking of our democracy for people to vote?
Scary, isn't it, that we could legally be under the presidential powers of a motivated, well-organized fringe minority?
Check history, it has happened... And it could happen in the Good ol' US of A...
You canpose the problem as: Can a democracy function with not even half of the voters actually voting?
For example, say that only 50% of eligible voters do vote for one or the other candidate in a presidential election: the winner can just gather 50% of that plus1 vote and become president, i.e., 25% of potential voters. Is this a democratic vote? No, it takes a fraction of voters (here, 1 of 4) to lead us (into... what? temptation? doom? Hell?..)
Another question logically follows: SHOULD a democracy be allowed to function, electing individuals with 50% + 1 vote of say 40% of potential votes? Should we have a quorum? Or will it take a hijacking of our democracy for people to vote?
Scary, isn't it, that we could legally be under the presidential powers of a motivated, well-organized fringe minority?
Check history, it has happened... And it could happen in the Good ol' US of A...
posted by kingba at 3:42 PM
1 Comments:
It grieves me that more US citizens don't exercise this most basic right...and then have the temerity to complain about the system. We are the system. If we don't play, it won't work.
For my money, I think I'd be in favor of some sort of consequence for people not voting.
Post a Comment
<< Home