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Americans don't vote. For all their talk of democracy, US voters have some of the lowest turnout rates in the developed world. Other countries have taken on their turnout woes with a direct approach: compulsory voting. Nowhere in the United States—save one city in the 1890s—has yet followed. But recently, American democracy reformers have begun mainstreaming the idea. If they succeed, the policy has the potential to revolutionize democratic participation. It can only do so, however, if it passes—a tall task at a time when Americans disagree about democracy's meaning and increasingly question its value. To turn compulsory voting from dream to reality will take a new approach—one based not in abstract appeals to democratic principles but a practical pitch that more voting means more power for everyday people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the conceptions developed by primary and secondary education teachers in Spain and England about democracy in education. To this end, we conducted a phenomenographic study involving 39 teachers. The results identify four major conceptions of democracy in education: (a) democracy as freedom, (b) democracy understood as participation and collaboration, (c) democracy as a principle for achieving social justice in schools and in the education system and (d) democracy as a principle to learn to live together and social norms. The discussion highlights that the way teachers articulate their conceptions is dominated by a liberal discourse of democracy in education. However, their ideas also show other nuances and traces of more open perspectives. This work stresses the importance of continuing to investigate teachers' conceptions and how alternatives to the dominant trend can be glimpsed through them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An election with full turnout is supposed to achieve an outcome that perfectly reflects the majority's preference. This result requires voters to be perfectly informed about their preferences and to vote accordingly. I show that incentivizing participation with an abstention fine does not necessarily incentivize information acquisition. While a small abstention fine always increases information acquisition compared to Voluntary Voting, a high abstention fine that achieves full turnout increases information acquisition only if voting costs are high. If voting costs are low, the opposite is true: Less individuals acquire information under Compulsory Voting with full turnout than under Voluntary Voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Our analysis focuses on the determinants of electoral participation among migrants, considering individual factors—gender and age—and variables from their countries of origin, such as economic, political, and institutional aspects. We specifically look at Chile, where migrants are allowed to vote in all elections after acquiring five years of permanent residency. Utilizing a comprehensive administrative census covering over 70 million voters, including 1.2 million migrants, from 2012 to 2020, our findings reveal several key patterns: Gender and age significantly influence voting behavior, with higher turnout among women and older migrants. Additionally, migrants from wealthier nations tend to vote less compared to those from poorer countries. Furthermore, the presence of compulsory voting in the origin country significantly increases participation among migrants, especially those from less democratic or non-democratic countries. This study bridges theoretical models that focus on individual variables and those that emphasize the impact of origin country characteristics on migrant electoral behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the important contributions made by the American Political Science Review (APSR) in addressing various political problems over the past four years. The authors highlight the journal's focus on democracy and democratic backsliding, inequality and resistance, voting, immigration, and climate change. They also mention the journal's exploration of conflict and cooperation, the consequences of political violence, and prospects for peace. The authors express gratitude to the authors, reviewers, editorial board, and publishers who have contributed to the success of the APSR. [Extracted from the article]

The Constitution of India bestows the right to vote on all its citizens who are above the age of 18 years and possess a sound mind, irrespective of class, caste, religion, or socio-economic status. Unfortunately, in today's times participation during elections is considered to be an unnecessary obligation or rather a chore that can be ignored. Effort has been made in the past to introduce compulsory voting in India albeit without success. The paper evaluates the arguments for and against compulsory electoral participation and attempts to situate its possibility and legality in the current context of India's constitutional democracy. The findings are based on comparative analysis on different cases and hold true for most democratic nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Politics in Latin America is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Does the enactment of gender quotas in legislatures affect satisfaction with democracy? Although extensive research has generally affirmed the potential of gender quotas to advance women's political representation, our article investigates how quota adoption has shaped public attitudes toward democracy. We argue that positive effects resulting from the descriptive representation of women could be attenuated by negative reactions to the implementation of a quota system. Specifically, we posit that the backlash to these compulsory parity‐corrective policies will lead to lower levels of satisfaction with democracy, particularly for men. Using cross‐national survey evidence from as early as 1973 covering 69 countries and well over a million respondents, as well as a generalized synthetic control design to causally assess the impact of quotas, we find strong support for our expectations regarding the negative effects of quotas on democratic satisfaction. However, we do not find clear evidence that gender conditions this relationship and report heterogeneous region‐specific findings with ideology and support for quotas as moderators. Importantly, we observe the strongest negative associations between quotas and satisfaction in contexts with higher levels of corruption, specifically in Latin America. Seeing that quotas have the potential to generate lower levels of democratic satisfaction among men and women, our analysis contributes to our understanding of public responses to fast‐tracking women's representation and has broader implications for other top‐down initiatives aimed at deepening norms of democracy and equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental sustainability has become an increasingly urgent concern for organizations. While research explores various methods for promoting employee green behaviors (EGBs), the impact of these behaviors on employees themselves remains under-investigated. This study reveals that the interpersonal impacts of voluntary and compulsory EGBs differ significantly, despite their seemingly equivalent function. Drawing upon self-determination theory and utilizing three-wave data from 231 employees, we propose and test a process model that delineates how these two EGB forms exert contrasting effects on job engagement, burnout, and fatigue through affective organizational commitment and perceptions of environmental policies hindering productivity. Our findings offer a deeper understanding of the motivational underpinnings and downstream outcomes of EGBs. They also highlight the potential for negative consequences when organizations fail to distinguish between EGBs arising from voluntary endorsement and those driven by external compliance. As organizations strive to embed sustainability within their operations, they must prioritize fostering voluntary EGBs, aligning efforts with employees' personal values, rather than resorting to coercive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the diversity of topics in political campaign communication on social media during the 2022 Australian federal election. While political campaigns on social media are often associated with both persuasive and mobilising appeals, this research focuses on understanding the differences in persuasive content by comparing organic (non-targeted) and paid (targeted) political communication. Analysing the Australian context, which follows a Westminster system, with compulsory voting, we utilise data from the federal election 2022 to investigate how political actors employ persuasive communication strategies. Through topic modelling, we examine whether distinct themes vary in content and prevalence between organic and paid social media content disseminated by political parties and candidates. Our analysis revealed that the differences in topic diversity between paid and organic content do not seem to be substantial, despite popular concerns about higher personalisation due to advertising targeting which could lead to information fragmentation of the electorate. Both types of content predominantly focus on core political topics, aligning with party ideologies and include overall campaign information (e.g., on election procedures). However, government critique emerges as a distinct topic in both organic and paid content signalling the usage of negative campaigning to weaken opposing parties. In conclusion, this study suggests that the strategic manipulation of the electorate through social media during the Australian federal election in 2022 was limited. Nonetheless, the prevalence of negative appeals towards the government and opposing parties raises questions about the potential impact on citizens' trust in democracy and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I aim to counter Jason Brennan's principled objection to the Representativeness Argument for compulsory voting, and to criticize the case in favour of voting lotteries, on which this challenge is predicated. In brief, Brennan claims that compulsory voting should be rejected because there is an alternative system, i.e. a voting lottery, which is able to ensure demographic proportionality in electoral turnouts without diminishing the freedom of citizens. But even on the most favourable conception of freedom which the argument can employ, voting lotteries raise a number of serious concerns in respect to this value. Furthermore, while comparing voting lotteries and compulsory voting on the basis of freedom cannot provide any generalizable support for the former, a plausible case can instead be offered in support of the opposite idea, namely that compulsory voting outperforms voting lotteries with respect to freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, refugees remain on the margins of the public imaginary as subjects of aversion, erasure and suspicion. The unknowability of the foreign Other carries sharp political dimensions borne out in policies of strict border control and mandatory detention that have restricted public access to the voices and stories of refugees for over two decades. However, recent life narratives by refugees provide an antidote to this dominant discourse, by testifying to the traumatic precariousness of living in detention and confronting readers with unflinching visual displays of subjects often silenced and invisible. Safdar Ahmed's Walkley Award–winning documentary webcomic, Villawood: Notes from an Immigration Detention Centre (2015), documents the lives, experiences and drawings of detainees in Sydney's Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. This article reads Villawood as an example of the vital rhetorical and representative work done by webcomics to expose the violences of Australia's border spaces and put the personal stories of detainees in dialogue with vast audiences online. By attending to the collaborative and mediated process of its construction, this article maps the critical literacies needed to interpret webcomics as testimony and considers what this medium might offer life narrative studies and the project of ethical witnessing more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discussion on mandatory turnout, which controversially introduces coercion at the heart of the electoral process, illustrates a dilemma between increasing voter turnout on the one hand and avoiding coercion on the other. If successful, a recent proposal by Elliott solves this dilemma as it removes the compulsory element of mandatory turnout. Specifically, Elliot reinterprets the policy's purpose as (a) a pre-commitment device for those who believe that they have a duty to vote and (b) a nudge to the surveillance of politics for those who do not believe this. We critically evaluate Elliott's novel intervention in the debate and argue that it is ultimately unsuccessful. Mandatory turnout can be interpreted as neither a pre-commitment device nor a nudge. Moreover, we present a more promising and novel solution to the dilemma: a genuine state-administered pre-commitment device with respect to voting that also nudges citizens to vote and seems prima facie attractive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One strategy in defence of compulsory voting is based on what I call the non-instrumental value of high turnout: the idea that almost-universal participation in elections is valuable per se. This article argues that we do not have democratic reasons to value compelled turnout. First, thanks to an original analysis of the practice of voting, I identify three constitutive rules that make the physical acts of marking and casting a ballot count as proper voting. This preliminary analysis serves to illuminate the fact that the act of voting has democratic value if it is performed in a free and reason-responsive way. Second, I identify political equality and popular control as democratic values that high turnout expresses. Finally, the article rejects the non-instrumental case for compulsory voting because it cannot ensure that people vote in a reason-responsive way and, if they do not, high turnout lacks democratic value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to contribute to the analysis of the processes of school attachment and disengagement of young people in secondary schools in the context of the pandemic, highlighting the family socioeconomic level in which the young people in this study are embedded. School connection is the subject of extensive debates in our country, mainly since the expansion of the Right to Education where compulsory schooling extends to the secondary level. The pandemic has impacted education in multiple ways, making school engagement one of the main focuses of attention when looking at school trajectories. Preliminary findings from an ongoing investigation are presented below: "School dropout in secondary school: an investigation into the networks of events and experiences in the processes of school interruptions with secondary school youth"; which aims to contribute to knowledge about educational problems in secondary schools in the context of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: This article presents a comparative analysis of the system of simultaneous and open presidential primaries (PAS, for its acronym in Spanish) in Latin American countries that have adopted legislation on the subject. In what appears to be a growing trend, nine countries--with differences among them--have established a PAS regime regulated by the electoral body and with public financing. Methodology: First, a description is presented to characterize and classify different PAS systems, considering their main normative differences. Then, hypotheses about their possible effects are proposed based on the literature on presidential primaries and electoral systems. Finally, taking into account the results of the primaries carried out and the subsequent presidential elections, an attempt is made to show to what extent the PAS system encourages citizen participation and competition for nomination, whether it favors or harms the parties that carry them out, and its capacity to stabilize the party system. Conclusions: Factors that stimulate participation, such as compulsory voting and simultaneity with other elections, and encourage competition, such as open presidential ticket, are identified. No institutional factors are found to directly benefit or harm the groups that decide the candidacy in a primary, although conflicting primaries seem to harm them. The ability of the PAS system to stabilize party systems seems to depend on its interaction with other institutional and political factors. Originality: This is the first work that ventures into a comparative analysis of the PAS system with regional coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the underpinnings of Japan's programming education in elementary school music, officially implemented nationwide in 2020. Through that reform, which has introduced programming thinking (a local version of computational thinking) in all areas of compulsory education, the country follows the international trend of reinforcing IT skills, considered essential for employability. However, Japan's cross-curricular policy raises questions on its implications for the arts, including music. In view of that, this study presents a content analysis of 12 recent Japanese-language sources, selected for reporting about activities that integrate programming education into music in elementary schools in Japan. As part of that analysis, the main objectives of those activities are described and examined together with their approaches to programming and music learning contents. Findings reveal the apparent lack of a specific theoretical framework aimed at music learning goals, and beliefs about a certain affinity between music and programming, only partially defined. They also show tensions between flexible and fixed-goal approaches to compositional activities, as well as several interpretations of IT terms that have permeated music education, namely, algorithm and program. This suggests new roles being attributed to music as a school subject in relation to computer science, a fact that leads to discussion about the need for specific strategies, in view of challenges and goals particular to this country, such as society 5.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the concept of epistemic constraints on voting (ECV) and their compatibility with political equality. The author argues that ECV can be justified without violating political equality by proposing a civic accountability justification. This justification emphasizes the normative relation between voters and their obligation to act in an epistemically responsible manner. The author addresses concerns about disrespect and hierarchy, arguing that the civic accountability justification avoids these issues. They propose a model of Enhanced Civic Voting (ECV) that includes competence-enhancing training as a prerequisite for voting, but not a test or examination. The text emphasizes the importance of mechanisms that hold voters accountable for their responsibilities, rather than sanctioning them based on the content of their decisions. The civic accountability justification argues that participation in shared institutional practices, such as voting, imposes normative demands on citizens to honor their epistemic responsibilities. It does not rely on disrespectful or comparative assessments of political competence, but rather emphasizes the importance of epistemically responsible conduct in voting. The justification suggests that constraints on voting should focus on promoting meaningful discussion, autonomous assessment of public disputes, and exposure to competing political arguments, rather than demanding a predetermined bundle of information or favoring certain political views. The author argues that if we value relational equality, then everyone should have equal power in determining political decisions. They reject competence-based restrictions on participation, as it would create a hierarchy where some citizens are subjugated to the authority of others. Instead, the author proposes a civic accountability justification for [Extracted from the article]

A strong oscillation of electoral preferences took place in Chile between the election of the members of the Constitutional Convention in May 2021 and the election of the members of the Constitutional Council in May 2023. This is surprising because, until the national-scale social uprising in 2019, there was a broad consensus that Chile was a highly institutionalised party system where political preferences tended to be stable. In this research note, we study how the electoral choices made by citizens shifted between both elections, using the ecological inference approach based on a Bayesian hierarchical model developed elsewhere. We find that a vast majority of the new voters that resulted from the compulsory voting policy implemented between both elections opted for centre-right to right-wing candidates. However, this evidence is insufficient to determine whether these new voters predominantly align with right-leaning ideologies or hold anti-systemic viewpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roman Republican elections especially during the Late Republic were a ubiquitous phenomenon. The small number of higher magistracies in comparison to the growing number of eligible candidates often led to a fierce competition within the political elite. To secure a win, competitors running for office made use of a whole spectrum of methods which often overstepped the legal and moral boundaries and eventually resulted in legal measures. The lex Licinia de sodaliciis enacted in 55 BCE is one of these measures. This article studies the lex by raising questions about its historic background, its target – electoral misconduct by organising sodalicia that is political associations within the voting districts – the trials conducted under the law, the effect associations had on Roman politics, and the Senate's effort to regulate them thorough legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to investigate students' psychological, cognitive, and social well-being in 6th Grade and the relations to academic achievement in compulsory school, as measured by grades in 9th Grade. Due to reports from Swedish authorities and research, students' self-reported well-being has decreased during the last decade. Data from the Swedish longitudinal project Evaluation Through Follow-up was analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. By using data from two birth cohorts (1998: N = 7 684 and 2004: N = 9 437), differences in well-being across the two cohorts could be investigated. Cognitive ability, parental education, and gender were also accounted for. Statistically significant cohort and gender differences were found, where cohort 2004 was disadvantaged in all three well-being dimensions, and girls were disadvantaged in psychological and social well-being. Psychological well-being was negatively related to academic achievement, indicating that students who experienced more school-related stress performed higher than students who experienced less stress. Cognitive well-being was positively related to academic achievement. Possible causes of the decrease in well-being may be changes in the educational and assessment system, which meant that cohort 2004 went through compulsory school with a stronger focus on results and grades than earlier cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the global trend of lowering the voting age to 16 and its impact on young people's political engagement and relationship with democracy. It discusses the countries that have already implemented this reform, such as Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Malta, and Nicaragua, and the political parties that have played a role in advocating for it. The article also examines the potential benefits and challenges of lowering the voting age, including increased youth participation and potential inequalities within younger voter cohorts. It emphasizes the importance of implementing comprehensive measures, such as civic education, alongside voting age reforms to enhance young people's political engagement. [Extracted from the article]

A serious challenge facing Western democracies is the falling propensity of successive cohorts of citizens to vote. Over the last 50 years, newly eligible voters – particularly from poorer backgrounds – have become less likely to vote in their first elections, and more likely to develop habits of non‐voting. This trend has prompted greater interest in policies with the potential to increase first‐time voter turnout, such as lowering the voting age or compulsory political education. Despite a growing academic interest in volunteering as a means of youth political expression or route to civic revival, however, the promotion of youth volunteering has not been seriously considered as a potential tool to help address generational turnout decline. An extensive literature argues that volunteering can increase first‐time voter turnout, but it is hindered by the limited use of panel data and failure to account for confounding and selection effects. It has not, moreover, considered the potential for the effects of childhood volunteering to be conditional on prior political socialisation, particularly the influence of parents, which is necessary to assess its potential to reduce turnout gaps reflecting socio‐economic status. This study uses the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study and structural equation modelling to overcome these limitations and examine the impact of childhood volunteering on the turnout of newly eligible voters. It shows that for most young volunteers there is no significant benefit, but for the children of politically disengaged parents, volunteering does have a significant, positive effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of unequal electoral turnout poses serious concerns for both the overall health of democratic politics, and the extent to which certain groups exert an unequal influence on the political process. This article explores the relationship between electoral rules such as: compulsory voting, electoral system proportionality, and voter registration with voter inequality in terms of age, income and education. This is examined using cross-national survey data and cross-level interactions between electoral institutions and socio-demographic variables. The final dataset is based on waves 2–4 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, and contains information on 133,000 individuals, within 45 countries, between 2001 and 2016. The results indicate that compulsory voting is associated with a significant reduction in turnout inequalities, while the effects of proportionality and voter registration are somewhat more mixed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article traces the history of attempts to institute compulsory voting in the U.S. during the Progressive Era and presents pro-democracy and reformers' arguments on compulsory voting. Topics discussed include Colonial Era statutes imposing fines for non-voting, legislative and academic efforts to institute compulsory voting, compulsory voting proposals from the 1930s to the present, right to vote as a privilege or duty, voter turnout and state enforcement of compulsory voting.

Based on an administrative census of the 267,116 migrants registered for the 2017 presidential elections and a survey applied to 4771 migrants, we conclude that (1) the electoral participation of migrants shows a significant gender gap, with women participating in a higher proportion; (2) migrants who registered earlier in the electoral registers, are more likely to vote compared to the rest; (3) when migrants come from countries that implement compulsory voting, they increase their likelihood of voting in the receiving country; (4) the declaration of wanting to remain in Chile and not return to their countries of origin or migrate to another country increases the probability of voting, and the same happens with married migrants, with Chilean children, with a Chilean partner, and with a better economic situation; (5) social capital has a positive influence on electoral participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is extremely important to the development of society. The purpose of this article is to discuss the reasons for the formation of the "nine-year compulsory education" policy in Taiwan, and on the other hand, to explore the process of the formation of the "nine-year compulsory education" policy, which was expanded to the whole of Taiwan with Kinmen as a pilot program. Finally, it discusses the connotation and concept of the "nine-year compulsory education" policy and its impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although women constitute about 50% of Kosovo's population, their participation in local governance falls short of the equality threshold. Despite progressive gender equality legislation, women's political participation has not reached the anticipated increase. This study focuses on women's participation in Kosovo's local governance, investigating the factors contributing to their low political engagement. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative research methods, we analyze policies and trends in women's political participation. Findings indicate that women's political involvement in local governance in Kosovo has progressed over the years, yet it remains within the bounds of the mandatory 30% gender quota representation in legislative bodies. Whereas, in decision-making positions, this representation of women is even lower. The study also reveals that the low level of political participation by women is attributable to cultural, economic, and political factors. Overall, despite incremental progress, achieving gender parity in women's political participation within Kosovo's local governance remains a significant challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies the factors that have influenced varying levels of citizen involvement in municipal elections in Uruguay since 2010. Several studies show that turnout in local elections is lower than in national elections, whereas that participation increases as the size of the municipality decreases. However, in Uruguay turnout is very high in all elections because voting is compulsory. For that reason, we use a novel way to measure citizen involvement in subnational elections by quantifying the "partial blank vote" or level abstention, which captures the percentage of those who turn out to vote but abstain at one of the levels (departmental or municipal). We show that the inverse relationship between municipality size and electoral participation also holds, even when compulsory voting does not show it in turnout. In many small municipalities the votes for local authorities exceed those obtained by departmental authorities, thus inverting the relationship of the second level election model. Our findings allow us to observe varying levels of citizen involvement beyond the mere turnout to vote, which has been the only variable analyzed thus far by the academic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the last 25 years, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have become popular assistance policies across Latin America, Africa, and Asia for combating poverty and building human capital. Despite some success in reaching these goals, questions remain about the wider political effects of CCTs on individuals and communities, especially when considering gendered relationships and the institutions in the countries where CCTs are in place. Objective: I investigate the relationship between cash transfers and political participation, while also considering the importance of moderating forces such as gender, program enforcement, and compulsory voting. Methods: I use data from AmericasBarometer sourced from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) and a series of multilevel models to examine the association between CCTs and a wide set of participatory indicators. Results: I show CCTs to be robustly associated with higher levels of participation broadly conceived. Results also demonstrate gender and institutional features such as enforced conditions and compulsory voting can attenuate the positive effects of transfers, depending on the form of participation considered. Conclusion: Overall, CCTs tend to be strongly associated with political participation. However, CCTs may also reinforce gendered norms of political participation and engagement. Furthermore, the potentially negative associations regarding the enforcement of program conditions are valuable to consider when evaluating the downstream, democratic potential of cash transfer programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of compulsory voting on grassroots electioneering in Australia between 1910 and 1951. It argues that the introduction of compulsory voting resulted in a shift from mobilization-focused campaigns to more persuasive campaigns. Grassroots campaigners in the 1930s and 1940s adopted new methods, such as amplifier campaigning and candidate-focused leaflets, to reach a larger and less engaged electorate. The article emphasizes the significance of these changes in campaign practices and highlights the continued use of candidate-focused literature and personal canvassing in modern times. [Extracted from the article]

Is voting a duty of democratic citizenship? This article advances a new argument for the existence of a duty to vote. It argues that every normative account of electoral representation requires universal turnout to function in line with its own internal normative logic. This generates a special obligation for citizens to vote in electoral representative contexts as a function of the role morality of democratic citizenship. Because voting uniquely authorizes office holding in representative democracies, and because universal turnout contributes powerfully to representation being fair, to be a good citizen of such democracies requires one to vote. Whereas previous arguments for a duty to vote have invoked basic moral principles like fairness or a Samaritan duty of rescue, this account is based on citizens occupying a vital functional role within electoral representative institutions. This institutional duty solves the "specificity problem" of justifying a duty to vote better than competing accounts and also immunizes the duty to objections that there is no duty to vote when there are only bad choices and that there is a no duty to vote but rather duty to vote well. By emphasizing the tight connection between institutions and individual conduct, the role morality approach used here supplies a less abstract and more realistic framework than much previous research on the ethics of democratic citizenship and brings the debate closer to constitutive features of democratic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

745 There are several initiatives aimed at getting listed companies to involve their shareholders more in ESG issues. Calls for mandatory advisory voting on (the implementation of) (parts of) ESG strategy and/or policy by the general meeting should not be heeded, according to the authors. We discuss this topic in a Dutch context. It is better to leave it to the management board, under the supervision of the supervisory board, to assess on a case-by-case basis whether it is in the company's interest to have the general meeting vote on (part of) the ESG strategy or policy (or its implementation). Shareholders who are entitled to put items on the agenda cannot force an advisory vote on (a part of) the ESG strategy or ESG policy (or its implementation). In principle, however, they can have the aforementioned topics put on the agenda for discussion. Questions on ESG topics can be asked at the meeting. The scope for asking questions and the obligation to respond these questions partly depend on the agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop and experimentally test a model of voter information acquisition in nonpartisan elections, both with and without abstention. We theoretically demonstrate that allowing for abstention can increase information acquisition, provided the cost of information is not too low. Our experimental data find that voters are less responsive than predicted to increases in the cost of information. As a result, the cost required to yield higher levels of informedness when abstention is allowed is higher than predicted. Our data are well explained by agent quantal response equilibrium, which accounts for the fact that uninformed voters are often observed to vote, even when it is not rational to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article challenges the question of how and why 'the compulsory same surname system for couples' was written into the Meiji Civil Code. Administrative documents related to surnames issued by the Meiji government, documents of the Code Research Committee, and the stenographic records of the Diet deliberations allow us not only to know that the form of the compulsory same surname system for the Couple was influenced and justified by the norms of marriage in Western society, but also to unveil an invention of tradition. 'the compulsory same surname system for couples', a product of Westernization, was then combined with the Japanese traditional 'ie' system and successfully implemented as a new tradition that was created and established in a short period of time. This article concludes in the Meiji period, during the construction of the modern national state, when 'the compulsory same surname system for couples' broke the norm of the surname belonging to the upper class under the feudal era, while the sense of family unity it brought also served to unify the nation. And so, internally, this served to homogenize and unify the nation. Externally, Meiji leaders believed it would play a role in correcting the unequal treaties with the West and removing any perceived influence from Chinese civilization. Using this system of the compulsory same surname for couples as one of the means to build the identity of 'modern Japan', was the true intention of the Meiji government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are there any prima facie reasons that democracies might have for disenfranchising older citizens? This question reflects increasingly salient, but often incompletely theorized complaints that members of democratic publics advance about older citizens' electoral influence. Rather than rejecting these complaints out of hand, we explore whether, suitably reconstructed, they withstand democratic scrutiny. More specifically, we examine whether the account of political equality that seems to most fittingly capture the logic of these complaints – namely, equal opportunity of political influence over electoral outcomes – can justify disenfranchising older citizens. We conclude that equal opportunity of influence cannot ground a blanket disenfranchisement of older people and that, taken in conjunction with other general considerations that apply to all sound electoral policies, partial disenfranchisement proposals (i.e. proposals for reducing the electoral influence of older citizens via age-weighted voting) are both quasi-inapplicable and practically unrobust across a relevant range of political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Quaestio Iuris (QI) is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This research paper intends to explore the scope and impact of introducing "Forensic Science" as a compulsory course in the different Bachelor of Law degree programs that are being offered in Pakistan. The study investigates the importance of forensic science education in Pakistan and evaluates the potential benefits of incorporating this course into the legal education system of Pakistan. It also gives a short introduction to the institutions providing forensic services in Pakistan. The paper analyses the challenges that may arise in implementing this idea and proposes solutions to overcome them. It also discusses the influence of the teaching of forensic science over the lawyering skills of students of law. The authors have also proposed the course contents of "Forensic Science" which may be approved with the consent of stakeholders and the National Curriculum Review Committee of HEC with or without modifications. The research method which has been adopted to gather the data and draw conclusions is doctrinal. The outcome of this research suggests that introducing forensic science into the curriculum of legal education programs in Pakistan would have a significant impact on legal education, legal practice, and the administration of justice in Pakistani society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of constitutionally mandated referendums to vote on constitutional reforms in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Topics discussed include a comparison of mandatory and non-mandatory referendums, levels of entrenchment of Caribbean constitutions, and the failed mandatory referendums in St. Vincent, the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda which aimed at amending the basic structure of their constitutions.

The article discusses the debate on whether referendums should be made compulsory or voluntary. Topics discussed include the purposes of the law of politics in democratic systems, the advantages and disadvantages of compulsory voting at referendums, and distinctions between elections and referendums. Also highlighted are compulsory voting case studies in Australia and Chile.

Historically the United States has proudly described itself as a "melting pot," declaring, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."1 However, if the truth is told, the United States of America has never been a melting pot. In a melting pot, the ingredients each contribute something to the pot that equalizes them into becoming a well-seasoned, indistinguishable meal. No one ingredient dominates the mixture, and each adds something that makes the pot richer. This country is more like a gumbo, a dish whose ingredients stand out, where some purportedly add more value to the mix than others. The term "purportedly" is intentional because the cook determines which ingredients are more deserving of being added to the gumbo and which should dominate the flavor, style, and end result. Yes, the United States of America is a gumbo, White supremacy has been the cook for far too long and the maintenance of power has been the main ingredient. America needs some new cooks in the kitchen. The right to vote has always been an unkept promise as America's vision of equality has been distorted since its very inception. Many Americans believe the First Amendment is the most important right. The authors of this Article, however; believe that the right to vote is the foundational right because voting allows citizens to engage in the political process. Without participation in the political process, all other fundamental rights are diminished. While voting is touted as the cornerstone of American democracy, it is a promise repeatedly broken. We acknowledge that every person who is a minority in America, suffers from racism; however, but our focus here is on Black America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elections are one of the main institutions of good governance. The correct and relevant functioning of the mentioned institution determines the quality of democracy, the legal self-awareness of society and the index of political-economic development of the country. The democratic nature of the elections is indicated by the existence of specific principles, which are stipulated by the electoral law, in particular, universal suffrage, equality, free elections, and secret ballots. The relevant interpretation of each principle determines the effectiveness of the institution. The presented paper focuses on the institution of compulsory voting, which is directly related to the expression of free will. The aim of the paper is to review the institution of compulsory voting, to study its impact on electoral integrity and the overall legitimacy of the political system. According to literature review, the pros and cons of compulsory voting are highly debated. The reason is that there are a lot of supporters and opponents of a given institution with quite strong arguments supporting or opposing the institution. Based on the goals of the paper, it provides a description of the concept of compulsory voting and the reasons for establishing the mentioned institution. The paper reviews the types of obligation and their characteristics, explains the different systems of sanctions imposed on the persons avoiding their voting obligations, and the exemption rules based on the legislation of various countries. Based on literature review and collected data analysis, authors highlight the main patterns of compulsory voting, its relationship with legitimacy and efficiency of elected body. The final part of the paper outlines and evaluates the arguments for and against compulsory electoral participation and presents main findings according to comparative analysis of different cases. Based on the analysis it’s obvious that the institution of compulsory voting cannot be considered with the same results in different societies or states with different social-economic conditions.

A robust body of research demonstrates that those who vote for electoral winners are most satisfied with democracy. In addition, a growing stream of literature shows that compulsory voting affects vote choices, attitudes, and emotions. Drawing insights from both literatures, I theorize that the relationship between winning and satisfaction with democracy is weaker for compelled voters. I test my theory with two separate studies. In study 1, I leverage a natural experiment whereby individuals are quasi-randomly assigned to compulsory voting on the basis of their birth date. Results show that compulsory voting causes the size of the relationship between winning and satisfaction to decrease. In study 2, I harness postelection survey data from several dozen countries. Results show that the association between voting for winners and satisfaction with democracy is weaker in countries where nonvoters are subject to penalties, especially among citizens who are less likely to turn out volitionally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]