Should you bother voting?
If your vote is just a drop in the ocean, why bother? In episode 44, we look at instrumental and expressive theories of voting to understand whether it's a worthwhile action to perform after all...
Episode 44 is now live. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, Google Podcasts and more.
As we wrap up 2022, please let us know what you think of the pod and how we can improve via our feedback survey! Thanks to everyone who has already submitted their answers using the link in the episode.
Should you bother voting?
Why should you bother voting at all? In a world where your vote feels like a drop in the ocean, where you're only voting for a representative most of the time, where districts are gerrymandered and voters are suppressed...why bother?
Maybe the answer to that is that we're doing something for the communal good? Maybe you need to communicate to swing future elections? Maybe it's more about saying something to yourself than achieving something!
We'll approach this firstly from a perspective of political science and explain the distinction between instrumental and expressive reasons to vote, before building up to moral reasons and considering policies such as mandatory voting and where we should draw the line of who gets to vote.
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Until next time!
Jake & Ant