Voting is a public good

The argument

Compulsory voting is often treated as an intrusion on individual liberty of a kind democracies do not otherwise permit. The argument's first move is to observe that they permit it routinely. Citizens of democracies are already forced to do things that they may not want to do but that are in the public good, including allowing their children to be educated, paying tax, and serving on juries. Each of those is instructive in a different way. Compulsory education overrides a parent's preference in the interest of the child and of the society that child will join. Taxation takes money from people who would rather keep it, because the goods it funds cannot be supplied any other way. Jury service conscripts a citizen's time outright, on the ground that trial by one's peers cannot exist unless peers actually appear. In none of these cases is the obligation regarded as a violation of democratic freedom; it is regarded as one of the conditions of having it. What the three have in common is that they serve a greater societal good and reflect a broader social contract between the governors of society and the governed — an arrangement understood as a careful balance between a citizen's rights and responsibilities. Rights are underwritten by everyone's participation in the duties that sustain them, and the balance collapses if the duties are optional while the rights are not. Voting belongs on the same side of that ledger. It is the responsibility of each citizen rather than a privilege reserved for those who feel inclined to exercise it, since the legitimacy of an elected government depends on who actually turns out. Making it compulsory would ensure that people see it as part of a broader social contract where full participation benefits society as a whole, placing it alongside the obligations democracies already impose for exactly that reason.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Despite modern democratic societies compelling citizens to participate in education, taxation, and the judicial system, many people still opt out of these supposedly 'compulsory' activities. It is common for people to opt out of jury duty, some people elect to home school their children with relatively little oversight from the Government, and many wealthy people avoid taxation by arranging their tax affairs offshore. If people are willing to avoid activities that society already considers compulsory and fundamental to a broader social contract, there is little to reason to suppose that they would not also find a way of avoiding voting as well.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] Making voting a compulsory activity does not mean people will actually vote.