You must have voted. If not you
should have if crossed 18 years of life. If you have not voted, what was the
reason other than geographical reason? Read this. You may find your soulmate
reason.
There are multiple reasons about why not to vote. What they can be? Let's find
out through Economics and general sense:
1. Lack of lalach
(incentive): If you are directly getting benefit from Govt then you are
incentivized to vote. But that happens with very few special interest groups
e.g. If One party declares that tax rates would be brought to 20% instead of
25/30%, than only those falling in that slab rate and who would care about the
money saved in taxes will be incentivized to vote. If all parties talk about
farmers, only and only farmers, won’t you think that nobody is caring for me,
why should I vote? It won’t matter to me then anyway whoever comes to rule. I
believe you agree here. Now, stop and think what is the thing that you would be
benefitted personally if party B or party C comes to power. Other than very
general benefit (If any) (Be rational, not emotional) there is nothing specific
which appeal you to go and vote for that party. You may get benefit but that's
unseen and thats why equivalent to zero. There is seen-unseen effect working
here
2. Rational Ignorance: We should
vote. But somehow we all feel somewhere that our single vote is not going to
influence an election. We might go for vote anyway but we know that single vote
is highly unlikely to affect an election. Therefore since benefit of single
vote is so little, it is rational not to incurr cost or spend any money or time
on it.
You
might say that this theory is wrong.
Okay. Read on.
Did you really spend time on your
candidate whom you voted? Frankly speaking, I didn't know more than his
name when I voted this election. (Ye to Modi ji the jinke liye I voted.) We
don’t spend too much time understanding process of govt or different policies
all parties have or past record of candidate or his nature or his possible
concern about you if any. It does not make sense for us to devote time and
understand all the things because benefit is too little as one vote is not
going to do much. So it is rational for us to be ignorant which is called Rational
Ignorance in economics. In fact there is one philosopher, who in one of his
book examines the ethics of voting and he makes an argument that it is immoral
to vote if you don’t know enough about candidates. If you are ignorant than
your vote could do more harm than good and so that is the normative reason to
not to vote.
To summarize, You don't know much
about the candidate because not cost effective. And because you don't know
much, you should not vote to prevent the potential harm.
3. Scale of the impact / Free
Rider problem: If electricity goes off in your house, you instantly try to
find out what happened or where is the problem. However, if you are told
immefiatelt that electricity is off for whole building/society, you will just
sit and wait for your TV screen to lit. Note that if you are wrongly informed
and in reality electricity problem is at your house only even then you will sit
for a long time until frustration/suspicion comes to your mind. This is scale
of impact. If everyone is suffering, you would think why should I go (till the
time you are not frustrated), let others go and find out. So
similarly until you are frustrated from current govt, you have reason not to
vote. This can also be called Free Rider problem/effect.
4. Do the “Ishara”: This
reason only applies when all the option are more or less equally bad. Which for
many of Indians is the case in current politics. Now imagine, you are
going to the market to choose a car, lets say. You go and very soon find out
that they all are of very bad quality and you wont even be able to use them for
five years. So whats the point? You will not settle with least worst car (no
emergency) instead you will exit from market and wait for better option. Supporting
the lesser of two evils is still supporting evil. This way by coming to market
and not purchasing anything, you send a signal which is same signal sent from
NOTA button in EVM. And even if with experience you know that no car available
in market is good enough for you so whats the point of even going there. This
way you are sending a signal by low voter turnout. Both signal are important
for market and political entrepreneur to bring in new product or new party /
candidate in such fractured market place. As a citizen of country it is also
our duty to declare that none of representatives are good enough and thus we
indirectly appeal to political entrepreneur.
This was what can be attributed
as one of the reason why AAP won the Delhi LA Election in 2015. Mr Kejriwal
analysed the gap and gave public third option. And this is the reason that in
Rajasthan, Congress and BJP comes in power every alternate 5 years because
there is no third option and they are frustrated too. They keep changing
between the two only. Can this be a reason why local parties are in power in
saouthern states aspeople know how congress and BJP are in center and so keep
them away from state? Let me know in comments.
5. Indifferent choice: Now this
situation is opposite of above point. Imagine (can imagine only, never a
reality in recent future) there are two candidates equally good in all relevant
aspects. You are indifferent between them for whom to choose. Now you know that
whoever comes, he is going to do good only. What’s the point of electing one of
them? Let others decide. I will agree with what they elect. So again, no vote.
6. Misc:
a. Parties
prepare manifestos and makes promises. You see the promises and vote for the
ones whose promises appealed to you. But no politician cares about their
promises. They may have done other work other than stated in manifesto but not
done the promised ones. So whats the point of voting when the base of promise
on which you voted is not fulfilled? Let anyone get elected and do whatever he
feels like.
b. Participation
in the system (i.e., voting) implies that the majority knows what’s best for
everyone. And when majority's favour is applied to everyone, you can't do
anything because you participated in the system and thus agreed to it. Not that
not voting will solve this problem but you have a point to make.
So,
these are the few reasons I came across, edited and could thought of. I am
being just an enthusiast here. Inspiration and some excerpts from Mr Amit Varma
in discussion with Mr Pawan Srinath in Pragati Podcast and The Seen Unseen
Podcast.
Even after reading this, let's
continue to believe in the concept of Democracy and Vote until we have another
proven better mechanism. Reason to vote may be much more than these.
Let me know your views if any or
if you have similar interest.
