Dissenting Electorate: Those Who Refuse to Vote and the Legitimacy of Their Opposition

by Carl Watner (Editor), Wendy McElroy (Editor), George Smith (Contributor)

This book is an anthology of articles and excerpts from a variety of sources that deal with the topic of nonvoting. In presenting the minority view that important moral and political reasons abound for not voting, the book unfolds these general arguments: voting is implicitly a coercive act because it lends support to a compulsory state; voting reinforces the legitimacy of the state; and existing nonpolitical, voluntarist alternatives better serve society.

Genres: Politics

135 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend recommended this awhile ago, and I found it at the DePaul library (it's not the easiest book to find, although Amazon seems to have it in stock every once in a while). It's a collection of essays dating from 1845 to the present, all written about nonvoting (the subtitle is "those who refuse to vote and the legitimacy of their opposition"). Some of the essays are better than others, but overall it's excellent food for thought. The general theme is that voting is a means of perpetuating an unjust system wherein a small group of people impose their wills on the masses & that this is a form of violence. It's basically written by and for people with a libertarian/anarchist mindset - several of the essays are specifically directed toward libertarians who don't see a contradiction in the idea of a Libertarian Party - but it was very interesting to read & think about these issues and ideas.