The Peace Party has pleasure in reproducing another of the articles by Francis Hernandez Owens written for his Work Experience Week with the Party in Summer, 2019.

Though in theory, one can vote for any party of their choice in a multi-party election, people rarely do, and often coalesce around the two largest parties. While one could suggest that millions of people coincidentally share identical views to that of these incredibly specific parties, I, for obvious reasons, disagree. In this case, why do so many vote for parties that don’t align with their views, when there are alternative parties that do?

An argument commonly utilised by said larger, established parties to dissuade voting for smaller, but ideologically similar parties goes as such. By voting for the smaller party, you are indirectly weakening the larger party and essentially splitting the vote. Through this, it is easier for a party that directly opposes both ideologically to come out on top overall. Within this come all of the horrors that imposing the ideology of said opposing party entails.

In a sense, this argument is a subtle form of coercion.

By this means, one is forced to moderate and compromise their views in line with a larger, similar party under threat of a far more disagreeable party reaching power. It thus follows that such a vote is not free or democratic in the truest sense. Many people vote contrary to their will out of fear, and on the basis that they will suffer if they do not. This seemingly overrules the reason for democracy in the first place; that government is reliant on the consent of the people, because consent brought about by coercion is, I’m sure we all agree, not consent in the first place.

Now that this is established, I must emphasise that, for our democracy to be truly moral, voters must disregard this fear of a ‘spoiler effect’ and, despite the potential ends, vote according to their conscience. There is no greater cowardice than knowing what is right and not acting on it. One can only be confident of the morality of their actions if they align their means with their ideals. Therefore, I ask of all voters; vote for the party you believe to be the most innately moral, not the party that you believe will bring about the least immoral ends as the lesser of two evils.