NationStates Jolt Archive

What did you vote on the issue? And why?

My opinion:

The whole point of a democracy is for PEOPLE to vote on who they WANT. If they choose not to vote, no one they wanted ran. Why force them to vote? And as so eloquently stated by Zeke O'Bannon, "Besides, if all those derelicts who can't be bothered to get off their ass once every few years voted, who would they elect? I shudder to think."

I chose compulsory democracy, later modified with a system of proportional representation. My belief being that if you're going to turn to the people for a choice, you could at least spend the effort to get the choice of the people. I detest the supposedly democratic systems of the UK and US that consistently give leadership to a person, when that person has not received consent to govern from a majority of the population.

Both systems lack a clear idea of what to do when the majority of people abstain. Surely this sends a message from the electorate, saying that they had no confidence in any of the candidates presented to them?

For that matter, when faced with a standard ballot paper of today (2 main party candidates, followed by aswarm of inependant and small party candidates) which is the correct vote if you dislike all of them pretty much equally? After all to be present on the ballot paper the candidate had to stand for election. Do you feel comfortable voting for people who have declared that they want power?