Tim Dunlop at the road to surfdom blog has recently discussed an article from the US discussing the introduction of compulsory voting as a way to mitigate the problems with their democratic process. It's plain to see from Aus that compulsory voting has a marginal at best effect on the relentless right wing tide. The cartoon reminds me of an anarchist argument that any large organisation (e.g. power distribution networks)inevitably leads to forms of tyranny and that any true democracy is only realisable if systems can be controlled on a more local level. Electricity generators can now be tiny, thereby obviating the incredible inefficiencies in say, making a cup of tea from power supplied by distant power plants. I appreciate this doesn't engage with the humour of the cartoon. Oh well. Food for thought?