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Introduction
Currently more than six out of ten people are living in an electoral democracy.1 However, although continuously more citizens are able to elect their leaders, not all of them grab the opportunity to do so. Worldwide average voter turnout has dropped from 73% in the mid-1980s to 64% in the mid-1990s (IDEA, 2002, 76).2 Many of the important democracies, such as Canada, France, Japan, Spain and the UK, recently reached their lowest turnouts ever. While there is considerable debate about the degree to which turnout is declining (Keaney and Rogers, 2006, 9-10; Teixeira, 1992; Wattenberg, 2002), the aim of this article is rather to show that low turnout levels per se are problematic for democratic regimes. It investigates whether compulsory voting is able to provide a partial solution to these problems. After analyzing the arguments in favor of and against compulsory voting, I try to sum up the debate and reach a conclusive stand on the issues at hand.
Situating the Debate
To show that low turnout is among the most serious threats democracies face today, I want to argue that it affects basic democratic values. The most fundamental premise of democratic thinking holds that those affected by a decision should be able to participate in the process which brings it about. To ensure that public policy is about the public - as it ought to be - one has to give the public a say in it. As Dahl argues, all members of a democracy 'must have equal and effective opportunities for making their views known to the other members as to what the policy should be' (Dahl, 1998, 37).
As direct participation is practically impossible in large societies, one has to resort to some type of representation and insist that policy decisions should be made by a publicly elected government. This makes an election the pre-eminent occasion to participate in public life. As voting is the most important form of political participation (IDEA, 2004, 23), turnout is often used as a 'measure of citizen participation' (Verba et al. , 1978, 8). When casting their votes, people express their opinions and preferences of the politicians, policies and politics of their country, region or town. In line with Dahl, one can...