Voting, determinism and free will: How do voters choose?

Lucrece A.

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Voting, determinism and free will: How do voters choose?

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Elections, democracy, electoral system, political parties, popular sovereignty, popular will, disparity

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In a democracy, elections are, for voters, the means to express their own ideology. Therefore, to understand the reason behind the voter's choice, we will first focus on the social forces that shape one's ideology. One's ideology is defined by Ian Budge. It is a relatively stable body of assumptions about the world, which often produces plausible reasons for public actions.

Today, voter's social class and religion seem less determinant of his/her choice; however, voters cannot be defined as pure "rational agents"
1. Voters' background influences their sensibility to one party's idea, as the social class of origin seems to shape one's opinion on social cleavages
2. With the mutation of the social structure since the 1960s, one's social class seems less determinant of his/her vote. A. Down believes that voters are rational agents who base their choices on parties' ideologies
Political institutions, such as the electoral system or the different political parties, influence the outcome of the elections and limit voter choice
1. Electoral systems can be differentiated by a degree of disparity, which explains their various impacts on voters' choice
2. By means of elections, democracy offers a wide range of choices; however, elected governments often rely on a limited pattern of policies. This can be explained by the party convergence predicted by A. Down, which reduces voter choice

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[...] Voting, determinism and free will: How do voters choose? Introduction In democracy citizens can voice their choices and opinions thus legitimizing the elected body through voting. Democracy: R. Dahl proposes a set of 8 criteria to define democracy: the right to vote, the right to run as candidate, the right for political leader to compete for support and votes, free and fair elections, liberty of association, liberty of expression, plurality of information sources, institutions of policy-making dependent on elections and other way of interest claiming. [...]

[...] Moreover, natural demographic processes can explain the outcome of the elections, for example a new generation coming into age to vote. Conclusion Numerous factors such as: sexes, social class, religion, place of residence or age help shape a voter's political ideology. Institutions also play an important role by determining the electoral system and in some cases limiting the voter's choice. However, their importance has to be balanced as the election takes place in a political, economic and social context, which plays a major role in determining the election's outcome. Sources: - Primary sources: R. [...]

[...] Research question: How do voters choose? Thesis: In his definition of democracy R. Dahl proposes "the right to free and fair election" and the "liberty of expression" as part of the set of 8 criteria defining democracy. Yet voter's choices are influenced by social determinism and by the political institution inherent to the electoral system. This essay will focus on Western European countries with a tradition of democracy. I. Today, voter's social class and religion seem less determinant of his/her choice; however, voters cannot be defined as pure "rational agents" A. [...]

[...] Although democracy offers in theory an unlimited freedom of choice, the electoral system limits voters' choice. Case study: The impact of political institutions can be illustrated by the case of Italy. In 1994 the country had radically changed its electoral system: from a proportional representation system to a plurality voting system and the outcome was the emergence of a new party, Forza Italia, and the defeat of the Christian Democrats party, which had dominated Italian politics for almost half a century. [...]

[...] The electoral system is a set of rules which defines how votes are cast and seats are allocated. The different electoral system affects the way voters choose because they all have a different level of disproportionality, which is the disparity between the number of votes received and the number of seats allocated. For example, in the UK, the electoral "first past the post" has a high degree of disproportionality, the party with the highest number of votes takes all the seats. [...]

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