Voting in Bad Faith

Joanne C. Lau

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

What is wrong with participating in a democratic decision-making process, and then doing something other than the outcome of the decision? It is often thought that collective decision-making entails being prima facie bound to the outcome of that decision, although little analysis has been done on why that is the case. Conventional perspectives are inadequate to explain its wrongness. I offer a new and more robust analysis on the nature of voting: voting when you will accept the outcome only if the decision goes your way is an act of bad faith: you are not taking part in a 'process that decides what we will do'. This analysis sheds light on understanding the intrinsic nature of voting and what we are doing when we make decisions collectively.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)281-294
Number of pages14
JournalRes Publica
Volume20
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2014
Externally publishedYes

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