Mandatory voting... an alternative to low turnout?

General Background

Electoral systems are different in any country, but there is something that all of them have in common: voting. It is well known that one of the fundamental principles of any democracy nowadays is the right for citizens to vote in order to choose their politicians. Since the creation of the first democratic systems the right to vote has been evolving from only some powerful men until the universal suffrage present in all real democracies today. However, there are different ways to approach the right to vote. For some countries voting is just a right, but for some others it is also a duty. In 2013, 21 countries in the world had compulsory voting through different laws (The World Factbook 2013). Looking at the last elections in several countries (Election resources 2016; The Telegraph 2016), having Belgium and Australia as examples of obligatory voting, it is clear that the later have better turnout results.

Belgian Electoral System

In Article 62 of the Belgian Constitution it can be read that “voting is compulsory and secret” (Belgian Constitution, art. 62). Belgium was the first country in the world to introduce mandatory voting in 1894 and it stipulates that every Belgian citizen from age 18 has to turn out on Election Day (Belgian Constitution, art. 62). Belgian citizens living abroad should register in the embassy of the correspondent country of residence. Once they have done that, voting becomes also mandatory for them according to the “Loi du 18 décembre 1998” (Pilet 2007, 2). From 2004, the same happens with foreign citizens living in Belgium for more than five years (Pilet 2007, 2). If a voter does not show up at the polling station on Election Day he/she can be fined (Code electoral 2016, art. 207). Fines can go from 25€ to 125€, and a citizen can lose the right to vote for a period of 10 years after missing four elections in a period of 15 years. Although this is a legal possibility, it is very rarely applied. As an example, in 1985, only 62 out of 450,000 voters who did not vote were sanctioned (Vanmaercke 1993).

Dutch Electoral System

The Netherlands is one of the neighbouring countries of Belgium, and its society shares a lot of culture with more than half of the Belgian population, mainly with the Flemish Region. In The Netherlands voting was compulsory from 1917 until 1970. The change to a non-mandatory voting system was not approved by the majority of the population at that time (Andeweg 1989, 55). However, due to the extremely proportional electoral system[5] in the country no more discussion has arisen about the possibility to establish it again. The main advantage of a proportional system like the Dutch one is, that it is “designed to enable almost any party, including extremely small ones, to enter parliament” (van der Kolk and Thomassen 2006, 41). In such a case, there is not much need to ensure high turnout as the electoral system guarantees wide representation of the population.

Looking at the turnout percentages since 1956, the change in 1970 can be identified. The turnout reduces from 94.9% in 1967 to 79.1% in 1971. For the past 20 years the levels of participation have been between 70% and 80%. It is still a high turnout level if we compare with countries like Spain or UK.

Conclusion

Democracy is one of the pillars of modern and developed societies, and the lack of participation in the elections is a threat to them. As explained above, compulsory voting has been an option for more than a hundred years, and it still is in some countries. In many states, mandatory voting and universal franchise were applied together, due to the fear of very low turnouts with a larger electorate (Stengers 1990). Since the beginning, the measure had supporters and detractors. In Belgium, just some years after the introduction of compulsory voting, detractors defined the measure as “the obligation that constraints us, that wants to strangle us” (Dupriez 1901, 121). On the other side, important scholars as Lijphart have stated that mandatory voting is the most efficient measure to raise electoral participation (Lijphart 1997, 11). In addition, it improves the legitimacy of the elected politicians because of the higher turnout (Levine 2012; Lijphart 1996, 11). Another author also argues that mandatory voting is an obligation to the fellow citizens and it is “reasonable because it yields collective (and ultimately individual) goods and protects a number of democratic, liberal and moral values” (Hill 2002).

Arguably, the “very heart of the discussion remains the same. The opposition on whether it is appropriate to force citizens to vote is a mixture of principles, values and electoral strategy” (Pilet 2007, 13). Detractors can defend that participating in a system they do not believe in may not be fair to them, however the option of voting blank or null is always present. In this, article it has been proven that compulsory voting guaranties a higher turnout, even when penalties are known to be very unusual.

In recent years there have been numerous measures aimed at tackling the issue of low participation. In fact, the European Parliament has placed special emphasis in trying to increase youth turnout in the coming European elections. Digital technologies have opened the door to new possibilities and opportunities to increase citizen engagement in electoral processes, starting with the development of electronic or Internet voting. Moreover, it also opens space for new and innovative ways of campaigning using social media as a communication channel. Hence, new technologies are to be seen as a complement to legal and institutionalized resolutions like compulsory voting.

References

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Belgium Constitution, art 62, from: http://www.parliament.am/library/sahmanadrutyunner/belgia.pdf

Code electoral 2016, “LOI - WET. 2016”, from: http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_loi/change_lg.pl?language=fr&la=F&cn=1894041230&table_name=loi

Delwit, P., Kulahci, E. and Pilet, J.B. 2004, “Le vote électronique en Belgique: un choix légitime”, Academia Press, Gand.

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The Telegraph 2016, “US Election 2016: Voter turnout fell to 58 per cent this year, estimates show”, from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/14/us-election-2016-voter-turnout-fell-to-58-per-cent-this-year-est/

The World Factbook 2013, Central Intelligence Agency, from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2123.html

UDHR 1948, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations”, from: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

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