Exaggerated and made up example of what I’m curious about:
My country has legitimate elections. When my government wrongly convicts someone I feel as if I have personally wronged that person by voting for the person who appointed the judge. God will judge both me and the judge for it.
Do I feel responsible for the selfish, harmful and bigoted choices made by a government I did my best to keep out of power? No, I don’t feel responsible, I feel angry
I get upset that the government has done something I disagree with or find immoral but even if I voted for a person I am still no more in control of that person than I am any other person.
I do my best to vote for people I feel are good people in line with my preferred policies but I only accept guilt over my own actions. For example, when I voted in the presidential election, I had no way of knowing what was about to happen in Israel. How can I accept guilt over my elected officials actions without knowing what they would be in an unpredictable future?
As you sort of suggested in your example, only if I voted for the person who did something wrong (or, I suppose if I were to miss an election and failed to vote against that person).
Somewhat but keep in mind that most countries that allow voting are not completely democratic. The actions of the government only consider the will of the people—they are not typically controlled by the people directly, though some are closer than others to this ideal.
For me personally it’s more about what actions can I take to influence the outcome? If it’s an important issue, am I doing all I can to exercise my voice? For the important issues this can go beyond voting. But if the government does something I don’t support and had no ability to prevent, no I don’t necessarily feel guilty about that.
I feel culpable for my governments actions. I mentally frame it as “my government” and “what we did” instead of the more common “the government” and “what they did.”
I feel it’s the only way to be a good democratic citizen. We speak reality into existence and I refuse to speak myself to the sidelines of self-governance, even if it means feeling culpable for the terrible actions of my government.
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