This year, 2012, is what we call the year of elections because many countries including South Korea, the United States, Russia, and France have presidential elections in this year. Following this current situation over the world, there is a controversial issue whether voting in national elections should be mandatory or not. Some people say that voting in national elections needs to be mandatory because it enhances the turnout. However, I totally agree with that idea, because that policy is beyond the government's authority, the very important method for heavy turnout is not the mandatory rule, and lastly, there is better way to encourage people to vote: social media and campaigns.
First, the reason why I do not agree about the opinion to make a law for mandatory votes is that the government has no right to force us to vote. It is true that citizens had struggled to gain the right to vote, and our ancestors' efforts were fulfilled. However, the "freedom" we had gained does not mean that everyone must vote. People have the right to choose and discard. If a government suppresses the freedom of choice, it cannot be illustrated as a democratic society.
Second, those people's opinion for making more people take actions in election with a mandatory law, of course, makes sense. In short term, this compulsive effort seems to be effective in a manner of the figure of turnout. However, in the long term, establishing a law for the mandatory voting cannot solve the fundamental problem among people who do not vote because they would become to think of "voting" is kind of assignments which they are forced to finish to avoid from illegality, not from their willingness. Also, a government needs to focus on more effective ways to encourage people to vote and give them hope that their choices can change their nation. If we take a look at the fundamental reason of the political apathy among citizens, we can find the answer easily. It is because they have been felt disappointed and betrayed with the result they had voted. So, they have became to lost the interest on their political issues. Because of that, we need to focus on the basic method for the heavy turnout.
Lastly, one month ago, April 2012, there was National Assembly election in South Korea. Due to the concern about light turnout, many celebrities and mass media had emphasized the importance of election and encouraged people to vote since a quite long time ago. However, after the closing of the vote, the National Election Commission proclaimed that the turnout of voters was about 50%. Of course, about 50% is low rate if we think of it as a light turnout, but at the same time, it is quite higher rate if we look back the turnout of previous National Assembly election 4 years ago. So we can conclude that government's temporary encouragement such as making the election day as a holiday or celebrities' campaigns to encourage people, especially young generation, go to the polling stations actually worked.
To sum up, there were three main reasons why I do not agree to make a mandatory tool for elections. As we can find the current news from France, which has about 75% of turnout, has any compulsive law to make citizens vote mandatorily. ... < I couldn't finish the conclusion in 1 hour..>
Oopse, typo on the 1st Paragraph: I totally agree-> I totally disagree...:'(
ReplyDeletehi. read your essay and I think it's good.
ReplyDeletehook was appropriate to start the writing and reasons that you explained were also good to support your idea...
and also the 'france example' in the conclusion was nice!
one trivial suggestion is, I think it's better to use 'Therefore' or 'so..' intead of 'Also' in the 2nd body paragraph...according to your logical flow!
This year, 2012, is what we call the year of elections because many countries including South Korea, the United States, Russia, and France have presidential elections in this year. Following this current situation over the world, there is a controversial issue whether voting in national elections should be mandatory or not. Some people say that voting in national elections needs to be mandatory because it enhances the turnout. However, I totally disagree with that idea, because that policy is beyond the government's authority, the very important method for heavy turnout is not the mandatory rule, and lastly, there is better way to encourage people to vote: social media and campaigns.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the reason why I do not agree about the opinion to make a law for mandatory votes is that the government has no right to force us to vote. It is true that citizens had struggled to gain the right to vote, and our ancestors' efforts were fulfilled. However, the "freedom" we had gained does not mean that everyone must vote. People have the right to choose and discard. If a government suppresses the freedom of choice, it cannot be illustrated as a democratic society. Moreover, if the government deprives people of the right of choose, people would think of behavior of voting as an irritating thing.
Second, those people's opinion for making more people take actions in election with a mandatory law, of course, makes sense. In short term, this compulsive effort seems to be effective in a manner of the figure of turnout. However, in the long term, establishing a law for the mandatory voting cannot solve the fundamental problem among people who do not vote because they would become to think of "voting" is kind of assignments which they are forced to finish avoiding from illegality, not from their willingness. Therefore, a government needs to focus on more effective ways to encourage people to vote and give them hope that their choices can change their nation. If we take a look at the fundamental reason of the political apathy among citizens, we can find the answer easily. It is because they have been felt disappointed and betrayed with the result they had voted. So, they have become to lose the interest on their political issues. Because of that, we need to focus on the basic method for the heavy turnout.
Lastly, one month ago, April 2012, there was National Assembly election in South Korea. Due to the concern about light turnout, many celebrities and mass media had emphasized the importance of election and encouraged people to vote since a quite long time ago. However, after the closing of the vote, the National Election Commission proclaimed that the turnout of voters was about 50%. Of course, about 50% is low rate if we think of it as a light turnout, but at the same time, it is quite higher rate if we look back the turnout of previous National Assembly election 4 years ago. So we can conclude that government's temporary encouragement such as making the Election Day as a holiday or celebrities' campaigns to encourage people, especially young generation, go to the polling stations actually worked. This means, the government can make a progress in higher turnouts without making a law.
To sum up, there were three main reasons why I do not agree to make a mandatory tool for elections. As we can find the current news from France, which has about 75% of turnout, has any compulsive law to make citizens vote mandatorily. It demonstrates higher turnout does not come from mandatory policy of the government. We need to keep it mind that it is more important to encourage people to go to voting place willingly.