Title: Why Is It Illegal to Not Vote in Most of Latin America? - The Atlantic
Headings: Why Is It Illegal to Not Vote in Most of Latin America?
Global
Why Is It Illegal to Not Vote in Most of Latin America?
Brazilians and Uruguayans face a choice this weekend: head to the polls, or break the law.
Compulsory Voting Around the World

Content: Recommended Reading
America’s Vaccine Nationalism Isn’t Working
Christian Paz
The Problem Is Facebook
Helen Lewis
The Party Whose Success Is a Problem
Helen Lewis
Ruling parties in Western European and Latin American countries, the authors write, faced the rise of unions and workers’ parties as their countries industrialized during the late 1800s and early 1900s, when many of them implemented their compulsory voting laws. “ During this period, the Left’s organizational ability to mobilize—and, in particular, turn out—its potential voters was increasingly perceived as being unmatched by other parties,” they write. Ruling parties, according to this theory, were essentially trying to get out the vote for a silent majority of what one Argentine official called “the rich and content” to protect their incumbency from the growing power of the leftist opposition. Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Peru all passed compulsory voting laws in the 1930s. Each later went through a period of military dictatorship between the 1950s and the 1980s. When democracy returned, so did the requirement to vote.