What is the best system of government?

Voting is an important element of Democracy

Question: What is the best system of government?
Position1 of 3›: Democracy
Argument1 of 2›: Voting is an important element of Democracy

Voting is one of the most important aspects of a government. The right to vote or not emphasizes where most of the power of the government goes to: the people or the government.

The argument

Democracies are the best government system to have because of what voting does. Citizens vote to choose the government directly, which means its composition is settled by the people who must live under it rather than by inheritance, by force, or by the judgement of a ruling few. That single feature is the source of everything else the argument claims. The first consequence is involvement. Voting allows citizens to be involved in the government rather than to stand outside it as subjects, and through it they can press for the policies that would benefit them. Their needs reach the process because they carry the votes on which officeholders depend, and a government whose continuation rests on the public's verdict has a permanent reason to attend to what the public wants. The second is that it keeps government pointed at the right object. Focusing on the public's need is the most important thing in a country, since that is what a state exists to do, and democracy is the arrangement that builds the requirement into the mechanism of power instead of relying on the goodwill of whoever holds it. A ruler who cannot be removed may govern well, but nothing obliges them to. The third is stability. A system in which people can register disagreement by voting, and can replace a government they dislike without overturning the state itself, channels conflict into a procedure everyone has reason to accept. Those who lose an election retain a route back, which makes the outcome bearable. The result is less conflict and more cooperation than in systems leaving grievance no legitimate outlet. Because voting secures participation, responsiveness and peaceful change together, democracy is the best system of government.

Premises

[P1]In a democracy citizens vote directly to choose their government and the policies that benefit them. [P2] This involvement keeps government focused on the needs of the public. [P3] A system built on the public's participation produces less conflict and more cooperation. [C] Therefore, because voting makes government serve the people, democracy is the best system of government.

Counter-arguments

Voting is only one small contribution to a government. If the government officials who could be elected want to further their own agenda and manipulate the public into voting for them, then the voting system fails. Manipulating the government system would put a government in danger. It would be better if the voting wasn’t left in citizen hands.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Being involved in the voting process is not an important aspect of the government. If the voters are selfish, the country won’t benefit from their voting at all.