Podcast
High voter turnout is often celebrated as a sign of a healthy democracy, with election officials viewing strong participation as evidence of public engagement and political legitimacy. On Terms of Engagement, Professor Jason Brennan joins cohosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to examine whether higher turnout actually strengthens democracy.
It’s axiomatic within most democracy and election administration communities that high voter turnout is a good thing, and higher turnout is a better thing. Secretaries of State brim with pride when over 80% of the state votes in a November presidential election.
But does this actually matter? Is there any evidence that governance is better if more people vote? Is there any evidence that the political body is healthier if more people vote?
High voter turnout could be a sign of fight-for-your-life politics or broad discontent with the status quo, or high turnout could sweep in voters who might be passionate about one political contest but know very little about the other items on the ballot.
Professor Jason Brennan of Georgetown University joined Terms of Engagement on Tuesday, October 6 to discuss these questions. Professor Brennan’s published work includes “Against Democracy” (Princeton University Press, 2016) and “Debating Democracy” with coauthor Hélène Landemore (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Coming soon!
Jason Brennan is the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of strategy, economics, ethics, and public policy at the McDonough School of Business. He specializes in political philosophy and applied ethics. He is the author of fourteen books, including Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Education, with Phil Magness (Oxford University Press, 2019), When All Else Fails: The Ethics of Resistance to State Injustice (Princeton University Press, 2018), In Defense of Openness: Why Global Freedom Is the Humane Solution to Global Poverty, with Bas van der Vossen (Oxford University Press, 2018), Against Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2016), and, with Peter Jaworski, Markets without Limits (Routledge Press, 2016). He also is co-editor, along with David Schmidtz and Bas Van der Vossen, of the Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism (2017). He edits the “Political Philosophy for the Real World” series for Routledge Press. As of February 2019, he has five books under contract.
With GISME, Jason designed The Ethics Project, a semester-long project for students to “thinking of something good, and do it.” As a graded assignment in their ethics courses, Georgetown students must explain what they decided to do with their funding (if they chose to take it at all), why they thought it was worth doing, and demonstrate that they actually added value to the world. They must describe the problems they ran into along the way, how they resolved those problems, and what they learned from the project. The Ethics Project requires students think and act like entrepreneurs, and to bear the responsibility for their decisions. The Ethics Project presents students with real-world challenges and real-world consequences of their own making. Jason is also a lecturer at GISME’s annual Workshop on Teaching Professional Business Ethics.
Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.
Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney. Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University. Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy. In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.” In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.” In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times. And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”
The views expressed on this show are those of the hosts alone and do not necessarily represent the positions of the Ash Center or its affiliates.
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