Low voter turnout can signal satisfied acceptance rather than government failure.

Evidence

Low voter turnouts in many nations, including, notoriously, the United States, are commonly taken as evidence that government has failed to elicit support. Prima facie, an equally or even more plausible conclusion may be that such turnouts are evidence that government has not engendered grievous distrust and opposition. Silence cannot unambiguously prove the case for or against government. If the crippled epistemology of mimicry underpins our expectations of government, then the limited commitment of most people to try to change or affect government makes epistemologically good sense. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 772

Categorization

• XREF: Inverts the standard civic-decay narrative; connects to Hirschman’s exit/voice/loyalty and to the reader’s interest in when institutional trust reads as consent versus apathy. — connects to: Declining voter turnout may express rational withdrawal from insignificant politics. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 718; New Right strategists openly sought lower voter turnout to increase their leverage — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 238
• SEED: Angle: reframing quiet consent as evidence in institutional trust debates — when should silence count as support rather than failure?