The Paradox of Voting and the Ethics of Political Representation

We the People: Is the Polity the State?

“…Moreover, normative significance is not always a coarse-grained matter. Following Alexander Guerrero (2010), one might think the precise level of support an electoral candidate receives is normatively significant: the more support she gets, the more justified she is in acting as a ‘trustee’ rather than a ‘delegate’, that is, using her judgement about how to act for her constituents, rather than merely doing as they have directed.…”

Collective harm and the inefficacy problem

“…Perhaps if we focus on a different or further outcome besides simply which candidate wins, it can be argued that one's vote will make a difference. Guerrero () argues that even if your vote will not make a difference to whether your candidate is elected, it will make a difference to how much support we should gauge the candidate as having. According to Guerrero, “the percentage of all mentally competent adults living in a political jurisdiction who freely voted to elect the candidate” is the best practically available measure of a candidate's degree of support (, p. 274), and a candidate's degree of support matters.…”

“…Guerrero () argues that even if your vote will not make a difference to whether your candidate is elected, it will make a difference to how much support we should gauge the candidate as having. According to Guerrero, “the percentage of all mentally competent adults living in a political jurisdiction who freely voted to elect the candidate” is the best practically available measure of a candidate's degree of support (, p. 274), and a candidate's degree of support matters. It matters because it affects how the candidate, if elected, is morally justified in behaving: the more support she has, the more she is justified in behaving as a trustee rather than as a delegate.…”

“…(This is not a problem for Guerrero—he is only talking about the voting case.) Moreover, as Guerrero himself explains, it does not even apply to all voting cases: it cannot explain why we should vote in a national referendum, and there are certain sorts of electoral systems for which it does not work (, pp. 298–299, n. 24).…”

What Makes Threats Wrong?

“…For Joseph Raz, state coercion, at least beyond the Limits of the Harm Principle, requires a Condition of “trust” (). And it is a common idea that state coercion requires a Condition of democracy (e.g., Guerrero ).…”