Duties Of Voters Merit In Democracy

Democracy as a way of life offers an opportunity for voters to elect their leaders. It is vital for bringing about peaceful social, economic and political changes, affirming loyalty to the polity and engaging in worthy political initiatives. Voters, however, require not only accurate facts, figures and knowledge to vote, but also the sanity of wisdom, the ability to become sensitive to circumstances and act wisely for the attainment of common good. As members of the state, they are bearers of rights and duties. By voting, Nepalis have exercised their rights and duties and become a part of the democratic process. They have conveyed their messages, interests and priorities into the political sphere. Periodic voting has increased their political efficacy, lifted their voice including those left behind and gained associational life and experience about the political benefits. 

Rational change

In each election, Nepali voters have, however, produced a riddle: they have cut the size of the dominant political party. The birth of a hung parliament now has opened many possibilities and compelled the leaders to work together with others for the formation of a government beyond the game of winner or loser. Conscious Nepali voters have shown meritocratic virtues by acting beyond the self-interest, family-affinity, communal course, partisan attachment, financial allurement or even entertainment.  The voters of the nation’s political heartland, Kathmandu, pioneered this trend-setting juncture for the periphery. Problems popped up with the ignorant, alienated and indoctrinated voters. They yielded to primitive criteria and demagoguery. The rational change of Nepali society demands a shift from primitive criteria to civic wisdom to abolish the vices of polity and spur a virtuous circle of progress.  It is yet to be seen whether Nepali voters’ exercise of vital choices will cultivate the rational path of the nation or bend to the play of transactional politics, self-deception and pillory to selfishness against code, laws and social discipline. To know the way how Nepali voters performed their duties, the way they did is vital for testing their political orientations.

First, rational Nepali voters motivated by duty to the creation of good society and polity have exercised their conscience voting believing that they can change their fate through their representatives who can transform political order in a democratic course favorable to their wellbeing. They think that they can mould their destiny; it is not predetermined by fate. The determining factors are an awareness of the empirical causes of their existence. They took refuge in normative principles of democracy, human rights, social justice and peace to change the shaky condition of living, expressed opinion and preference and upheld a faith in collective action. 

Obviously, conscious and rational voters are governed by the teleological concept of self-constituting sovereign. They are endowed with freedom of choice and self-responsibility and act in the process of self-realisation. Greek philosopher Socrates has rightly said, “Unexamined life is not the one worth living.” In examined life, citizens perceive a sense of freedom, vision and delight. Therefore, Nepali citizens constituted as voters, consumers, labourers and human beings must observe the world of reality in their understanding and live by actively participating in multiple spheres. Relentless expression of self in terms of lust for power, desire and craving, however, may make Nepali voters fit for survival. It does not make them just, good and virtuous for the establishment of a good polity.

The second duty is being heard and heeded to in politics and gain satisfaction. The attainment of civic competence in voting empowers voters to exercise their free choice, eased by the flow of informed knowledge, skill and confidence that they can set the direction of politics, leadership, law and public policies. Many nations offer civic education courses for their voters. Nepal has provided voters’ information which is inadequate to make them stakeholders of democracy and perfect citizens in regard to their virtues and character. Cultivation of civic-minded voters in Nepal is vital for nation building otherwise torn by subsidiary identity politics, declining voting turnout, rise in invalid voting and sporadic violence. Their growing civic sense marks a positive affirmation of democratic attitude capable of fostering participant political culture. This helps to overcome their parochial orientations to gender, caste, ethnicity, locality, region, religion, age, among others, in voting. For them, choosing virtuous leadership through electoral practice is summum bonum of democratic public life, their constitutional duty and search for a fulfilling life. Improving citizens’ cognitive sense is more important to conceptualise the condition of life and finding a normative frame for the future than organising feasts, buying voters, beautifying localities with physical glitter, displaying mass power, costly banners and constructing alluring arts.   

Third, voters’ duties lie in helping each other as participants in the political process, not free-riders. Given the high-scale of poverty and lack of opportunities for many Nepalis, voting is seen as a less attractive activity.  If they are paid they are motivated to vote for those who take responsibility to feed them for a day or two. The fulfilment of constitutional duty of the state requires the realization of essential needs of all Nepalis so that they are not tempted to trample the long-term impact of voting or equate it with a one-day meal.  In no way voters dictated by necessity can exercise their free will in matters of public and national interests. This is one of the reasons many Nepali voters preferred to go abroad to join the global labour market to earn their living on the election day rather than cast their ballot papers as a moral duty. Political inquiry determining the causes of non-voting, apathy or anti-voting must be pursued to know voting behaviour of Nepalis which helps policymakers know the direction of national politics and popular expectations attached to voting. Instruments of inquiry help resolve the problems facing the nation. 

Fourth, voters need to see themselves as citizens and human beings. They are not only physical beings, moved by material incentives, but are also rational and spiritual beings and think in the terms of good and evil before passing judgment and  evaluating the performance of candidates, parties and even the polity. 

The ethical existence of voters entails them of insights, experience and intuition about how to improve development indicators. The Nepali constitution has made them sovereign but many of them are powerless to exercise this sovereignty for a lack of cognition, choice and apt political agencies. As a result, Nepali democracy suffers from the output legitimacy. This means Nepali voters must be able to guide leaders in matters of the nation’s political direction, public policies and accountability of their actions. 

Duties to vote can conflict with the conscience of voters if they find no suitable candidates or parties of great merit and morality. The emergence of power bloc politics arising out of the need of leadership to return to power by electoral coalition of incompatible parties indicates that leaders have become clones of one another, not of distinct personality as each has supported the other and shared power irrespective of separate historical and ideological identities. Nepali voters now seek new leadership bubbling from below, outside the mainstream politics, with alternative ideas and recapture intellectual and policy void from politics.  Those who faced a dilemma resorted to partisan de-alignment and favored the birth of new parties and new candidates.

Duty

Fifth, Nepali voters’ duty involves not only the determination of leadership, power and authority but also about choosing clear public policies. It is a vital choice to be exercised by them as to what kind of development and democracy they prefer and how they can escape from perpetual stagnation and deterioration of the standards of living. The flow of information has provided Nepali voters practical consciousness, lively experience and feeling to give opinion about politics. The decline of ideologies in the mainstream parties has undermined emotional solidarity while their catch-all tendency has fostered voters’ de-alignment patterns. 

The de-politicisation of voters, however, does not transform them from people to citizens contributing to their volunteerism and effectiveness in voting. Only self-awakening can stimulate voters to inquire their leaders about the principles and justifications to vote for them. It is vital in Nepal as voting is not compulsory here like in Belgium, Australia and Denmark. Civic competence of Nepali voters is, therefore, essential to educate them about their rights and duties, power and opportunities and a sense of their own self-worth. A democracy would be just if its leaders balance societal considerations and addresse diverse personal needs of voters. They avert the electoral violence, the pre-civilised way to power.  

(Former Reader at the Department of Political Science, TU, Dahal writes on political and social issues.)