A few weeks ago in lectures we talked about what it actually meant to be a part of a democracy. This scared me. I am a part of the majority of people who are voting based on one or two issues that affect me. Yes, basically an uninformed tick of the ballot. I feel like a fake political science student!
I didn’t think of the key issues and ideas of parties, or in the interests of a greater good. None of these things crossed my mind, maybe because most of it didn’t directly affect me. Did anyone else feel this?...anyone?! Do we have the information to make totally informed decisions? I used to think as we are voting for promises not actions… an uninformed vote didn’t really matter.
This made me think .. the majority of the population is NOT making a informed vote. What’s the point?
Would New Zealand be more effective run and governed if under a regime which didn’t have elections?
Has any state ever gone from being a democracy to another regime?
I obsessed a bit over the election researching the parties and such, and when I talked with my friends about it I was shocked at how little they knew and how little they cared. Nevertheless I still believe strongly in the merit of free and fair elections. There's a minimum standard that the government has to meet to get re-elected, even if it's not as effective as some ideal guardianship might be, people will notice if the government is particularly bad and be able to change it.
ReplyDeleteVoters are generally self-interested and thus vote for what they think is in their best interest.
ReplyDeleteBut what must voters know to make an informed vote? Even if we know all the details, how do we know that the parties we elect will follow through with their promises?
If people only vote on one or two issues, is this necessarily a bad thing?
Maybe you do feel embarrassed that you didn't thoroughly investigate each option for your vote this time around- but the good thing is that you've now realised the impact of your "uninformed voting". It grinds my gears to hear people espousing the virtues of any political party when they can't back up what they're saying with actual policy, or at least a decent understanding of what the party stands for. The resources are out there if you want to find them- party websites are SUPPOSED to have comprehensive policy on them. And a look at what the parties have done in the past (especially in the cases of National and Labour) should give a fairly good understanding of what they're likely to do if elected. Too many people simply don't make the effort. And its then that you think- does democracy really work? How is it benefiting the people when voters only focus on short-term problems and their short-term solutions? Or worse, "issues" that have been built up so that parties don't have to focus on what's really wrong in the country. Perhaps an autocratic regime is best when a lot of long term changes need to be made. Or maybe suffrage should only be afforded to those who understand what they're voting for. But New Zealand prides itself on being a thoroughly democratic regime and I don't believe this is likely to change- not suddenly at least. If only people cared enough to make an informed decision before ticking the box!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you, some people in New Zealand just take our democracy for granted...look at the Bill and Ben party and the number of people who wasted their vote for amusement! While the main parties all vow democracy, so important issues such as regime changes aren't going to be affected by our vote, we still need to consider all policies and attitudes of the party we vote in. Now with MMP, votes count for even more with coalition governments. We really need to use the right of voting we are so lucky to have.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't it be that democracies are designed to work relatively well even when only a small part of the population is informed? Consider the possibility that most people vote randomly, but some people are fully informed; in that case, the random votes cancel each other out, but the fully informed votes determine the outcome.
ReplyDeleteAs I hope we have seen, by the way, some democracies in the early 20th century did turn into non-democratic regimes (fascist regimes). There are also of course coups and putsches that also have transformed democracies into other regimes, but these have little to do with the way people voted.
ReplyDeleteI would not disagree that we as a population are generally uninformed when it comes to voting at election time. When we look at the turnout during elections however, it is encouraging that a significant number of people do exercise their right to vote.
ReplyDeleteWhen compared to other countries, New Zealands voter turnout is reasonably high and in a lot of cases, people may not be informed about all the issues, but are informed on one issue that directly affects them and thats what they base their decision on.
One concern I do have though is the number of people I talked to at the last election who were voting purely on who they liked most out of the leaders. Given that the US election campaigns were running concurrently with ours, our 'fantastic' New Zealand media decided to turn our campaigns into a presidential campaign that saw Helen Clark vs. John Key. This did nothing to help people realise they are actually meant to be voting for a party and its policies, not a person!
Hadley, why would it be encouraging that a lot of people vote if they are generally uninformed? Wouldn't you rather have lower turnouts of more informed voters?
ReplyDeleteBut to be 'informed' people should go further than just the media. It seems that election promises are simply populist bribes to gain votes. Like Amir said, how do we know parties will follow through with their promises? Party policies are individual but the two main parties are close on the ideological spectrum, does this give us limited options because the dominating parties are so similar? Sure, MMP addresses this in a way that enables smaller parties to be part of government.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a level you can informed to - If you are reading the papers, looking at the websites of each political party etc then that is prob all you can do! None of us fully know what the parties will do if they get in - look at National - they havn't exactly gone through with all their tax cuts they promised etc. I believe this latest election was more about change than anything else, most people just seemed to want a change - like America.
ReplyDeleteNew Zealand politics are pretty straight forward anyway...we have no real extremist parties...Act is prob the most right we have and that is still pretty passive compared to other countries...National, Labour, united future, even greens are all pretty centrist these days...
I wouldn't feel embarassed...At least you voted...