Following the battering the government has received in recent weeks, it is no doubt looking for ways to change the subject. The unfinished business of constitutional reform, particularly Lords reform, is one obvious candidate. The local elections of 4th May also point to another policy theme—compulsory turnout. Turnout in the elections was estimated at a dismal 36 per cent—a drop of around 10 per cent from the early 1990s. In some poor inner city wards, less than one in five residents voted.
Why do people vote? This question has always puzzled economists and rational choice theorists, and rightly so. After all, while the “costs” of voting are slight, the “benefits” are even slighter. The chance that any individual’s vote will make any difference to the outcome is vanishingly small.
The question becomes less puzzling once you jettison the rational choice assumption that people only do something if they perceive the benefits to outweigh the costs. People vote for the same reasons they do so much else—because there is an established norm to which they feel obliged to conform. People vote not because they see it as in their interest, but because they see it as an obligation to vote and are surrounded by people who expect them to. (That’s why so many non-voters, when asked by pollsters if they voted, lie.)
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