Low Voter Turnout - Assignment Example

Low Voter Turnout Introduction Historically, the post-World War II UK General Elections voter turnout fell between 70-80 percent of the associated voting population making it one of the highest politically engaged nations in the Western world trailing only Italy and Belgium. In comparison, the United States of America tended to have a maximum of 50 percent voter turnout only. According to Franklin (2002), such a high turnout of 4 out of 5 voters was a source of pride for the British nation because it was considered to be the mark of a ‘good’ election though this is contended by many since Australia has a high voting turnout too but is due to the fact that voting is compulsory. Thus, it came as a surprise when the 2001 and 2005 elections voter turnout statistics was announced. In the 2001 General Elections, voter turnout fell to a historic through of 59.4 percent followed by a slight increase of 61.3 percent in the 2005 elections. The 2001 results alone sent shockwaves throughout the British media and the political system. In a 2004 report by baston and Ritchie for the Electoral Reform Society entitled ‘Turning Out or Turning Off’, the authors opened with a note that the turnout of 3 out of 5 electors was the worst in its post-war record. The last time that the turnout results registered this percentage was in 1918 where many of the registered voters were just beginning to return after the end of World War I. For the first time since 1923, the total number of those who did not exercise their voting rights was larger than the number of voters that determined the winning party. Knowing all of this statistics, the British political system became worried and there was much generated fanfare. The main concern over the 2005 elections was not who won for what seat. Instead, it was how many cared to participate in the elections. In this paper, I explored the deep underlying reasons why the low voter turnout occurred. I also explored the effectiveness of solutions and strategies that sought to address the problem. Political Thoughts on Voter Turnout Statistics Why is it that British voters are not turning up in polls? There are different, though not necessarily unrelated, theories explaining this social phenomena. Voter turnout is considered to be an index which can be used to assess the state of democracy in the country concerned. A decline in voter turnout can be considered as a decline in democracy. It can indicate that the political system is becoming authoritative and imposing such that the people are dissuaded or inhibited in exercising their voting rights. The legitimacy of the government is put into question because the decrease may imply lack of representation of certain groups. (Rose, 1997) Another plausible explanation is that it is due to the dissatisfaction of the voting populace in its political system because it may have conducted itself in a manner that goes against the values and beliefs of the country. For example, the politicking could have gone so intense that several more important issues have not been addressed. Another possible scenario is that corruption may have been so rampant that trust levels of voters have declined no matter who is put into office. Nonetheless, the study of Inman and Andrews (2009, p. 25) of Senegal and its voting process, they found out that corruption could actually lead to an increase in voter participation as long as the process is fully democratized. The 2004 Eurobarometer poll (cited in Baston and Ritchie, 2004) provided evidence in the notion of dissatisfaction of voters with their political representatives. Data generated from the poll indicated that the British public no longer demonstrate high levels of interests nor trust in the political system and the politicians. Only 19% of the sampled population stated that they ‘tend to trust’ the British government. In addition, only 10% also positively replied when asked if they trust the political parties. The 19% is the same percentage that trusted the executives of large companies and the European Union authorities. The British public had more trust in the press with 20%. It indicates that the British public trusts the media more rather than the elected government officials. This is indeed disconcerting considering that the media has been proven to be more concerned with marketing and increasing viewing rates. Voting is considered to be a measure of the civic-mindedness of the general public and not doing so can be considered to be a disengagement or worse, disaffection, to the current issues of society. To put this explanation in simple terms, not voting is not caring to fulfil their commitment to democratic norms and duties. While we have discussed earlier that people can be dissuaded by being dissatisfied of the way the government has been handled or to be handled, self-related factors can also be an inhibitor. There can be several self-limiting factors such as mobility, availability, simple lack of concern and absence of preferred delegates. Ellis et al (2006) noted that voter participation is influenced by contextual and systemic factors as well as individual and social factors. Political engagement can be influenced by the perceived efficacy of the process by the voter. As Ellis noted (p.12): “A sense of efficacy is developed when an individual feels well-informed enough about politics to believe that they can influence the makeup or activities of decision-making bodies. If an election appears to be meaningless or irrelevant, or an individual feels powerless or ineffectual in his or her interactions with the political system, the sense of political efficacy declines and abstention from voting is more likely. In its stronger forms, this can lead to political apathy and alienation.” – p.12 In a the 2004 report prepared by the Electoral Commission and the Hansard Society seeking to determine the degree of political engagement, it was found that only 52 percent of the British voters sampled were absolutely certain that they would vote. More than 50 percent acknowledged that they had no knowledge of politics. Only 53 percent claims interest in what happens in the political scene. Of this, only 13% responded that they were very interested. The participants were also asked whether their voting would influence the future policies of the government and the whole of society, 29 percent agreed while 31 percent stated that their votes did not matter. 20 percent were oblivious to the question. All of these data indicated that there was indeed disengagement on the voter due to personal factors and points of view. Franklin (2002a) conducted a research study investigating whether voter turnout was indeed a function of individual decisions. International voter turnout since 1945 was studied and compared to the social milieu indicates that turnout is actually an aggregate-level phenomenon. His study indicates that it is the sense of meaningfulness of the voting activity that ultimately encourages people and not individual-centred factors. The meaningfulness was found to be a function of ideological principles. In the past, society has been marked by deeply entrenched social divisions such as the left, centre and right factions all offering relevant value systems. Other social divisions that provided meaningfulness are the class inequalities between owners and workers, the division between the church and state, feminist ideologies and international policies. Franklin (2002b) noted that the decline of cleavage politics in advanced industrial settings have caused changes in aggregate voting behaviour (p.22). According to Ellis et al (2006, p.12), political participation is influenced by the degree of fragmentation of political parties (i.e. political ideologies) and the meaning of the results of the election itself to the community. Pontusson and Rueda (2006) tied voter participation with ideological attachments with the Left and the Right. Voters historically and ideologically align themselves to form core constituencies. If we are to look into history, we can note that politics has historically been a struggle between the left and the right. This state of affairs has animated the voting public as there was an ideology they were trying to defend and put into practice. It offered them a sense of meaning as it made them feel a need to unite with those sharing the same principles. However, British society has seen the defeat of the left wing with the defeat of the labour movement, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. With the left wing ideologies, the right wing did not have an opponent that attracted supporters to it. There was no more historic battle for alternative visions of society. Our own analysis of events indicates that in 1997, the Conservative Party collapsed under the landslide victory of the New Labour party headed by Tony Blair. This event was considerable since it completed the end of left-wing politics. Since 1945, general elections have been visibly fought over a clear political divide between the left and the right. People viewed voting as the determinant of where they lived, what jobs would be available to them and what would be the future Britain their children were going to have. Voting was an integral part of everyday life as was politics. With the coming to power of the New Labour Party, there was no longer the need to choose sides between the left and the right. The New Labour party offered the so called ‘third way’, a mix of left and right wing ideals and principles. With the extreme left no longer relevant, we can deduce that there were no more bases for polarisation nor the need for a right-wing party. Hence, the Conservative party by John Major collapsed. No longer were the people actively engaged in a political debate between the left and the right. Voting was no longer viewed as an activity that defined solidarity, identity and social interest. It became an activity that focused only on the capacity of the vote to determine self-interests. A ‘What’s in it for me?’ and ‘one vote won’t matter much’ became the determinant of voting. Thus, the struggle for the British political system was not to encourage voters to ‘vote for them’ but to vote at all. This is all due to the diminished importance of ideologies and crumbling of supporting structures that previously ensured stable, high and predictable voting behaviour. The unifying thread in all of these possible explanations is that low voter turnout is the result of political disengagement. We have explored the reasons that may explain why people are not voting anymore but the more pressing problem is that when people no longer trust the government or the political system, there is the possibility that they turn to the army, church and the British Parliament which is essentially dangerous for democracy. It is indeed a pressing problem when any political institution or figure is not to be trusted and this has given rise to the term ‘New Cynicism’. This is defined by Mick Hume to be the growing tendency of people not only being cynical about political figures but also in the political action itself. If people starts to believe that all of the politicians are all ‘lying bastards’, then the possibility of making them think that there is no cause worth believing today is not remote. Thus, there is a need to address the problem. (Hume 2005, Spiked Online) Increasing Voter Turnout: The Right Way Several methods and strategies have been proposed by the Independent Commission on Alternative Voting Methods (2002) to address the problem. Attempts include postal voting, e-voting, weekend elections, giving incentives and even compulsory voting. There are even suggestions to set up polling stations in supermarkets and transportation terminals just to make the voting process more accessible to busy people. Certainly, political activism is dying out in British society because of the factors we explored previously. We have been able to provide logical insights into the scale and depth of political malaise. The problem is that solving the issue with the methods stated above is merely a short-term fix and will not necessarily translate to increased voter turnout. When people are no longer engaged, it does not matter what superficial methods are applied. There are inherent problems in technologically related methods such as postal voting and e-voting. In a study conducted by Karp and Banducci (2002) in local government elections in England, it was found that postal voting improves turnout by about 50 percent. E-voting, which is the voting through the use of electronic and communication technologies, has not improved overall turnout. While it may be argued that poll voting can be an effective way of increasing voter turnout, there is a significant problem caused by this arrangement. Postal voting turns the process of voting into an extremely passive activity as it undermines its social significance and classifies it together with everyday simple actions such as paying the electric bill. It does not increase political engagement and actually works on the different direction. The system is also prone to corruption and has resulted to the Birmingham scandal where six seats are being contested due to evidence of massive, organised and systemic fraud as reported in BBC (2005). Again, it further increases the corruption perception of the voters and results to further disengagement. Other solutions such as compulsory voting and incentives provision are undemocratic and unprincipled. Voting should not be made to appear as an exercise of superficial benefits or obligations. It should be, and is actually is, an exercise of ideologies. Our discussion of the turnout crisis revealed that there is an underlying reason why people do not vote anymore. The solutions stated above tend to attach the problem to the voter’s laziness or stupidity. Tweaking the voting process and trying to increase the number of voters is not the solution. The method that should be provided is one which eliminates the tendency of voters to think that the election is a tawdry contest by almost-similar parties with petty agendas. As a Guardian editorial proposed, the first step in solving the problem is to look beyond making the voting process a numbers game. Efforts must be made to enrich and make the political process more engaging. People should be made to appreciate that voting is not only an activity for the individual but for others as well. While this paper may not offer a different solution, it has laid a more logical and effective strategy. Conclusion Voter turnout has become a major concern in British society and is causing concerns on the voting public becoming disengaged and apathetic individuals. The problem is deeply rooted in socio-political-historical changes in the British society. Voters are increasingly finding the voting process as having no meaning and relevance. Strategies to address the problem focus on making the voting process more accessible and less-disturbing to the routines of everyday life. Poll voting, e-voting, compulsory voting and other attempts to increase the numbers is not the right solution. There is a need to implement strategies that would make people realize the importance of the voting process not only to the individual but also to all of society. Perhaps when this is the strategy adapted, the possibility of increased voter turnout is more likely to be achieved. References: Baston, L and Ritchie K (2004). Turning out or turning off?. London: Electoral Reform Society Publications. pp. 5-6. Retrieved July 24, 2009 from http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/downloads/Turning%20out-3.pdf BBC (2005). Judge upholds vote rigging claims. BBC News. 4 April 2005 Franklin, Mark N. (2002a) 'The Dynamic of Electoral Participation', in Lawrence leDuc, Richard G. Niemi and Pippa Norris (eds), Comparing Democracies 2: New Challenges in the Study of Elections and Voting (London and Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. pp. 148−168. Franklin, Mark N. (2002b) 'The Voter Turnout Puzzles’. Paper presented at Fulbright Brainstorm Conference on Voter Turnout, held in Lisbon, Portugal, February 2002. Retrieved July 28, 2009 from http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mfrankli/TurnoutPuzzles.pdf Hume, Mike (2006). The most dangerous ‘ism’ now is the new cynicism. Retrieved July 27, 2009 from http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/1507/ Independent Commission on Alternative Voting Methods (2002). Elections in the 21st Century: From Paper-Ballot to e-Voting (London: Electoral Reform Society, February 2002), Retrieved July 24,2009 from http://www.electoralreform.org.uk Inman, K. and Andrews, J. (2009). Corruption and Political Participation in Africa: Evidence from Survey and Experimental Research. Paper presented at the 2008 meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 3-6, 2008, Chicago, IL. Retrieved July 28, 2009 from http://iis-db.stanford.edu/evnts/5666/Inman_Andrews_Corruption_and_Participation_in_Africa.pdf Karp, Jeffrey A. and Banducci, Susan (2002). Going Postal: How All- Mail Elections Influence Turnout', Political Behavior 2000 22(3): pp. 223−39 Pontusson, J. And Rueda, D. (2006). Inequality, Polarization, and Party Politics in Industrialized Democracies. Cornell University Publications. Retrieved July 28, 2009 from http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/Govt/PERC_files/PERC_Rueda_inequality.pdf. Rose, Richard (2002). Voter Turnout in the European Union Member Countries. In International IDEA pp. 17-21. Retrieved July 23, 2009 from http://www.idea.int/publications/upload/part%20I%20(12-53).pdf Rose, Richard (1997) 'Evaluating Election Turnout', in Voter Turnout from 1945 to 1997: a Global Report on Political Participation. Stockholm: International IDEA, 1997. pp. 35−46. Read More