Introduction

During the fall of 1973, as Watergate lurched toward its denouement, automobiles along the eastern seaboard began to sprout bumper stickers proclaiming, “Nixon 49 — McGovern 1: Don't Blame Me. I'm From Massachusetts.” This novel plea of innocence raises problems. If McGovern voters from Massachusetts (and the District of Columbia) merit exculpation from the Nixon reelection, who deserves blame? All voters from all other states? Nixon voters from all other states? Massachusetts voters who cast a ballot for Nixon? Does the fact that no one vote could have altered the outcome by the slightest degree and that this fact was known with a high degree of assurance before the election mean that no one bore any responsibility at all for the outcome?

Ascribing praise or blame to individual electors may have little practical importance. (Although, if voters regard themselves as morally responsible for the quality of the vote they cast, moral considerations will weigh in determining how they vote.) What is decidedly nontrivial is the relation between voter responsibility and the justification of democratic governance. If there is something distinctive about rule that stems from democratic processes compared with that which is exercised by a nonelected elite, it may be said that in the former case the enfranchised populace bears direct responsibility for which candidates gain office and somewhat less direct responsibility for policies that are enacted.