Voting as a Socially Constructed Duty

Abstract The “particularity problem” challenges arguments for a duty to vote by showing that the reasons usually offered—promoting the common good, avoiding free-riding, doing one’s part—can be satisfied by many alternative actions. We argue that this response does not always dissolve duties. Some actions remain obligatory even when substitutable, because cultural practices single them out as canonical expressions of underlying reasons. Celebrating birthdays is one example. Our culture fixes birthdays as the focal way of showing love and recognition, and parents who ignore them fail in their role, even if they meet the same ends in other ways. We argue that voting functions similarly.