Resolved: In a democracy, voting ought to be compulsory

NOTE: Please do not drop arguments. Take this seriously, please. I am doing this to prepare for a debate tournament. This will be done in L-D format, so you need a value and a value criterion. As Abraham Lincoln remarked: "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion... that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Since I believe that by neglecting the sovereign duty to vote, the citizens of democracy create a government of and for the people, but not by the people, I affirm what is resolved, that in a democracy, voting ought to be compulsory. My value premise is that of societal welfare, which is defined as the well being of a society. The affirmative upholds societal welfare because the better a government comprehends the desires, needs, and opinions of the people, the happier that society will be. Finally, societal welfare is the most important goal of any just government, especially a democracy, making this value paramount to all others. I shall uphold societal welfare with a criterion of popular sovereignty, which is the doctrine that a just government derives its power from the people, and that a government ought to uphold the will of the people. Popular sovereignty is the very foundation of a democracy, since the sovereign of a democracy is its people. The problem, however, is that when people"s voices are not heard, their wills are not expressed, making it hard or even impossible for the government to uphold societal welfare. In summary, I will uphold the well being of a democratic society by using the democratic processes of popular sovereignty. This leads us to my first point of contention, that low voter turnout is an international crisis A democracy needs to hear the voices of its citizens before it can cater to the needs of the people; however, many democracies have such a low voter turnout that only a miniscule fraction of the voices are heard. In order to uphold popular sovereignty, and ultimately societal welfare, the government needs to know the will of the people as a whole. The only way to come even remotely close to this goal is via compulsory voting. According to Rafael Pintez in Voter Turnout Rates From a Comparative Perspective, several democracies without compulsory voting are facing low voter turnouts. For instance, in the United States, a mere %66 of the eligible population voted. That means that over one-third of American citizens are neglecting their sovereign duty to vote! It"s not just the United States that"s facing this crisis; India has a mere %59 of the population voting, Switzerland a mere %56.5, and Colombia a pathetic %48, which means the majority of Colombians do not vote! While low voter turnout is an acute issue facing several democracies, Compulsory voting has proven itself to be a valid solution; Australia has %95.5 of its population voting, and Singapore has %94 of the population voting. Low voter turnout is counterproductive to popular sovereignty, societal welfare, and democracy in general, as I will further illustrate in my next contention. In many instances, a major portion, sometimes the majority, of the eligible voters in a democracy do not vote, which makes it impossible for the government to understand the will of the people. This affirms the resolution because a democracy is morally obliged to understand and cater to the opinions of the majority, and one of the only ways to do this is via compulsory voting. My second Contention is that voting is a sovereign duty that ought not be neglected. As Mahatma Gandhi stated: "The true source of right is duty. If we all discharge our duties, rights will not be far to seek. If leaving duties unperformed we run after rights, they will escape us like will-o-the-wisp, the more we pursue them, the farther they will fly." In any society, the people have duties to uphold order. For instance, we are obliged to show up to jury duty to guarantee that justice is upheld. We also have the obligation to obey laws, drive safely, fill out the census, and get a basic education. If we did not have these obligations, society as we know it could not exist. In this contention, I argue that we also have the obligation to vote, since voting is conducive to societal welfare. Democracy literally translates into "rule by the people." That being said, we can logically deduce that sovereigns of a democracy are its people. The people of a democracy have a sovereign duty to vote, because voting is essential to upholding societal welfare. To support my logic, I will use the logic of French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In his book, The Social Contract, Rousseau calls the collective grouping of all citizens the "sovereign," and claims that it should be considered in many ways to be like an individual person. While each individual has a particular will that aims for his own best interest, the sovereign expresses the general will that aims for the common good. In this way, Rousseau argues that it is the sovereign duty of each citizen to express his or her beliefs, so that the sovereign may express its desires for societal welfare. Put simply, voting is a sovereign duty. By not voting, citizens hurt society as a whole. Every single person in a democracy has a critical role in expressing the general will that aims for the common good, and if citizens do not do this, they hurt not just themselves but everyone in the society. I will conclude my constructive with what has been proven: 1. That the only way that we can ever uphold societal welfare is by popular sovereignty, which requires that the voices of the people be heard. 2. Low voter turnout is an issue facing several democracies, since political silence is almost never conducive to societal welfare. 3. Voting is not simply a right. By not voting, citizens neglect a sovereign duty, hurting not just themselves, but also society as a whole. This undermines the ultimate purpose of a democracy: to guarantee a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Any just government, especially a democracy, has an absolute moral obligation to solve these crises. Therefore, since compulsory voting would absolve democracies of these burdens, we must accept that the resolution stands. For these reasons and many more I firmly, yet respectfully, urge a vote in affirmation on today"s ballot.