Hazel Blears, Great Britain’s Secretary of State for Communities and Local Governments, has a plan to increase voter turnout for local elections. Her idea is to offer a drawing with prizes such as an iPod or a gift certificate.
Let me repeat this. She is proposing giving prizes to those who vote.
Apparently, the idea of selecting leaders, influencing political power, making laws and setting tax rates is not good enough to motivate the voter anymore. Yet throw in an iPod and watch them flock to the polls. That is the proposal anyway.
Why has voting turnout fallen badly in Great Britain? Centralization of power is the answer. Local government faces decreasing power as the national government increasingly makes the laws for all society. With local government becoming irrelevant, voters have little motivation to vote. Will an iPod change that? Or maybe some free groceries?
Is this what democracy has come to—the political equivalent of a raffle? I hope not.
