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Emotion

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Individual voters will be influenced by emotion, yet is this a bad thing? There are many examples in history where emotional appeals led to progressive legislation that would not have been accomplished in any other way.

In England, for example, legend says that the bill for Habeus Corpus passed the vote in the House of Lords simply because the speaker, being inebriated, counted the obese Lord Salisbury as ten. The bill passed and was signed into law.

We are complex creatures, and for better or worse, the understanding of the issues and the response to them will vary by individual, as does the understanding of a party platform. In fact the average thinking voter, being blessedly human, will vote according to his or her conscience, moral sense and personality; this means that the sum of the experiences that made them what they are will play a part in moulding the attitudes that lead them to their decision as to how they will vote.

The reality is nowhere near as clear cut as the question implies however; individual voters often believe that they are voting impartially, comparing the platform of the individual party with the issues and awarding their votes accordingly to the candidate and party that will best benefit the nation as a whole.

Thus they may have the best of intentions, yet will still be strongly influenced by their reaction to individual issues and policies, as well as the language in which those are couched: those reactions will be based on personal and highly subjective criteria. This is the price of universal suffrage in a heterogeneous society.

It is an unpalatable truth that a significant minority of voters will support one party all their lives, often the party that their parents supported. This is not a reasoned decision, but based entirely on emotion. Another significant minority will vote very rarely or not at all, usually justifying this inaction by one of a number of excuses along the lines of "There's no difference between the parties."

The number of voters who actually vote, and who can be swayed from one party or candidate to another for any reason is actually a minority, albeit a significant one, and their rationale will vary from largely emotional to minimally so.

Politicians understand this, which is why they attempt to spin' (exploit) issues so that they will elicit a response from a specific segment of the population. Needless to say, these target populations are those whose vote can be influenced: the committed voters are rarely given more than token recognition.

The size of this segment of eligible voters who will both regularly vote and whose vote can be influenced by platforms and campaigns rather than personalities and glitz is a minority of those eligible to vote. Even if we assume that most individuals try hard to use reason to award their votes, they still comprise a minority of eligible voters.

Learn more about this author, Richard Sprigg.
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