What is the author's main claim?
Compulsory voting is said to violate freedom, because a citizen should be as free to abstain as to vote. The objection assumes that compulsion is the same as coercion of opinion. Yet an electoral duty to attend a polling station does not require anyone to support a candidate; blank ballots are allowed in many systems. We already accept compulsory jury service, taxes and, in some countries, military conscription, which interfere with liberty far more. The case for compulsion rests on two facts: elections held with low turnout tend to be won by the groups most likely to vote, and those groups are seldom representative of the whole. It does not follow that compulsion cures disengagement, which may have deeper roots. But it removes one cause of unequal influence.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. Compulsory voting is compatible with liberty and reduces one source of unequal political influence
- Step 1: The author answers the freedom objection and gives the unequal-influence argument.
- Step 2: The last sentence limits the claim by denying that compulsion cures disengagement.
Answer
Compulsory voting is compatible with liberty and reduces one source of unequal political influence.
Why not the others: The author expressly denies a complete cure, does not say there is no right to abstain, and mentions conscription and blank ballots only as comparisons.
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