User:Brianaburroughs/sandbox

Course: Beyond Representative Government
Assigned Article: Criticisms of electoral politics

This article discusses criticisms of political systems, specifically representative democracy and direct democracy, that use elections as a tool for selecting representatives and/or deciding policy through a formal voting process as well as the act of voting itself. While representative democracy (and electoral systems in general) have become the modern civics global-standard, many of the below criticisms describe alternatives that existed before and/or independently of electoral systems. This includes but is not limited to the actions and political movements that stem from anti-electoralism, which describes activism around encouraging people not to vote for ethical or ideological reasons. This article does not address criticisms of neither "electoralism", the term coined by Terry Karl nor voter suppression, which is the act of discouraging or preventing people from voting in order to influence the outcome of an election in your favor.

Criticisms of electoral politics range from cons of specific electoral mechanisms such as legislating by elected officials, initiative, referendum and recall to theoretical opposition to voting. These criticisms are relevant to discussions around electoral reform in both democratizing countries in the less developed world as well as most developed countries that espouse some form of electoral democracy.

Ideological Criticisms

Anarchist

Anarchists and some other libertarians typically argue against the legitimacy of political representation although most libertarians accept the concept of delegation. This is primarily due to their belief that majority rule voting systems will erode the liberty of social and political minorities. Libertarians argue that any truly just political system must include voluntary association to prevent the oppressive enforcement of law. Additionally, libertarians argue that the election of representatives creates a priest-class of political administrators while disempowering and alienating the general public, for which voting is a highly mediated form of political engagement that diverts energy away from more effective means of political and social reform (or, for some anarchists, revolution in the form of Direct Action). Some libertarians argue that representation is philosophically impossible due to the unique nature of each individual, distinct from social, political, and economic class interests.

Empirical Criticisms

Even in advanced democracies, there are concerns about electoral systems being inadequately free, competitive, or fair. Complaints are made about financial barriers to running for office; electoral advantages that come with incumbency; systemic difficulties of mounting viable third-party candidates; the role that corporate money and inadequately-regulated television advertising play in determining who is elected; the hurdles erected to keep poor, marginalized, and unsophisticated citizens from successfully registering and voting; the intentional, competition-reducing gerrymandering of districts; and even inadequacies in the mechanics of casting and counting ballots.

— Alex Guerrero, "Against Elections: The Lottocratic Alternative," (4)

Lack of Meaningful Accountability

The promotion of good governance and responsiveness are often cited as the two main justifications for a system of elected representatives. According to Alex Guerrero, these make up mechanisms for meaningful accountability. He argues that in order for these to exist, elections must be free, regular, competitive and fair. Without this perfect system, officials are likely to be able to avoid accountability mechanisms that should be built into the democratic system. Citizens' ability to monitor the behaviors of their representatives and therefore vote or protest in line with their own values is also diminished by conduct, issue, and broad and narrow evaluative ignorance. This is particularly important because many political problems are information intensive. Guerrero argues that political power is actually more important for interest groups the less it is connected to constituent preferences; therefore, less accountability to constituents may be the easier and cheaper option for representatives. The interests exercise the voting process by either influencing the elections and those elected.

Voter Fraud

In many developing and transitioning countries, electoral fraud is at least anecdotally present. More recently, in developed countries, especially in the Western Hemisphere, voter fraud has become a hot-button political issues. In several circumstances, however, the broader ideological concerns surrounding voter fraud focus on the idea that fraud or any form of misrepresentation is inherent in the electoral system.

Displacement of Creative Citizenship

Colin Crouch argues in Post Democracy that focus on electoral politics detracts from the power of issue- and cause-based outside groups like large international organizations and smaller grassroots coalitions. He states that citizens engaging with these organizations provides more means to become involved in the political process than simply helping politicians get elected. This is especially true in the era of modern technology. This speaks to larger issues with the US pluralist system and the impact of lobbying groups on elections.

Alternatives

• Lottocratic System

Also known as sortition

• Consensus decision-making