By Ethan Hollander, Wabash College
Democracy has been envisioned as the form of government most able to prevent leaders from abusing their power. When leaders are accountable to ordinary citizens, their ability to abuse those citizens should, in theory, be diminished. But democracy is also subject to a number of dangers and disadvantages, like voter apathy and ignorance.
Winston Churchill and Democracy
Reflecting on the dangers of democracy led Winston Churchill to call democracy “the worst form of government … except for all the others”.
Some of Churchill’s biggest concerns with democracy had to do with the issues of voter apathy and ignorance. He’s quoted as having said that “the best argument against democracy [is] a five-minute conversation with the average voter!”
Limitations on the Right to Vote
Concern about voter ignorance is nothing new. That’s probably the reason the franchise—the right to vote—was originally so limited.
The ancient Athenians, America’s Founding Fathers, the French revolutionaries—they all sought to exclude certain groups of people from voting. That could mean people who were poor or uneducated, or other people who they thought were incapable of making certain decisions, like women, or people of certain races or religions.
Today, most democracies don’t discriminate on the basis of gender or race or religion—at least, not officially. The broad application of the right to vote is, itself, one of the things that makes a regime democratic.
Politically Literate or Ignorant?
But the broad application of the right to vote is also something that leads to concern about voter ignorance. There is, indeed, something weird about putting matters of the state in the hands of ordinary citizens. People who know nothing about the political process still get to vote. There is no criteria or standard set for the citizens to meet to be able to vote.
However, that’s not entirely true. In the United States, one group of people is required to demonstrate political literacy before they vote, and that’s naturalized citizens.
For example, a person who grows up in the United States, but is born in Korea and only recently becomes a US citizen, has to pass a test on American government as a part of the application process. So, the newcomers to this country are required to have at least a little bit of political literacy before they are given the right to vote.
As for the rest of the people, they get to vote regardless of how much or how little they know. A recent news article mentioned that fewer than 40% of Americans can name their congressional representative. So, a lot of voters clearly don’t know who or what they’re voting for. And that is what we mean by voters’ ignorance.
This article comes directly from content in the video series Democracy and Its Alternatives. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Counterargument for Voters’ Ignorance
There is a counterargument that suggests that voter ignorance isn’t something to worry about after all. It suggests that, even though a lot of people can’t articulate why they vote for one candidate or another, they still vote in ways that match up with their interests.
This counter argument in favor of voters’ ignorance also happens to be the one advantage of political partisanship. As we see it, the political parties play an important role in counteracting voter ignorance. They act as what economists call information shortcuts. That is to say, they sum up (or abbreviate) a lot of information that helps us make informed decisions.
Importance of Party Affiliation
One might not know much about Representative Jane Doe. But they do know that she is, for example, a Republican. Besides, most of us know—or we at least have some inkling—as to what each of the political parties stands for. And so, because one knows that Jane Doe is a Republican, and what Republicans stand for, they can make quite a good conjecture about whether or not she’s the kind of representative that they would want to support.
In other words, party affiliation serves as a stand-in for a lot of other information: if Jane Doe is a Republican, she probably has a particular view on abortion, or immigration, or taxation. So, even if one doesn’t have direct knowledge of Jane Doe’s positions on these things, they get a lot of indirect knowledge from her political party. And that empowers them to make a reasonable decision.
Now, party signaling might not always work since not every candidate toes the party line on each and every issue. But so long as the political parties have relatively consistent, well-articulated platforms, the information shortcut should help the average voter arrive at a decision that reflects his or her interests, even if he or she can’t fully explain the details as to why.
Sources of Indirect Information
Voters get the same kind of indirect information from political endorsements by a celebrity or a well-known organization. One might not know anything about Senator Smith, but they do know that the president showed up at one of his rallies. Or they might know that their labor union, or Greenpeace, or the National Organization for Women, endorses him.
So, even though they don’t know the particulars of Senator Smith’s record, they can make a good speculation as to his political stance.
Thus, we can only say that the argument that voters don’t understand who or what they’re voting for has something to it, but it also has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Common Questions about Voters in a Democracy
Winston Churchill’s biggest concerns with democracy had to do with the issues of voter apathy and ignorance. He’s quoted as having said that “the best argument against democracy [is] a five-minute conversation with the average voter!”
Not everyone in a democratic country is politically literate. People who know nothing about the political process still get to vote. There is no criteria or standard set for the citizens to meet to be able to vote.
Political parties play an important role in counteracting voter ignorance. Even when people do not know much about the political candidate, they do know about their political parties and hence have some information about their political stance.
