ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a number of questions about the meaning and conduct of voting in democratic settings. It describes voting as the expression of preferences among alternatives, considering possible orientations that a voter may bring to the matters to be decided as well as certain types of preferences that are illicit or inappropriate. The chapter considers a number of issues concerning the meaning and conduct of voting in democratic settings. Voting entails the existence of preferences, whether formed prior to the decision process or elicited and shaped by the alternatives presented for choice; they are in a sense the most basic ingredients in a democratic process. Some formal and economic theories of democracy make the assumption that people are largely or entirely self-interested, at least in the economic and the analogous political marketplace. Normative democratic and republican theories often call for voters to be public-spirited and regard purely self-interested voting as corrupt or morally deficient.
