‘Votes at 16’ and Lessons From 1969
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
| Author | Jon Tonge,Thomas Loughran,Andrew Mycock |
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905819871845 |
32 POLITICAL INSIGHT • SEPTEMBER 2019
2019 marks the 50th anniversary
of the 1969 Representation of the
People Act, when the UK became
the rst state to adopt 18 as the age
of enfranchisement. It is surprising that little
attention has been paid to this anniversary,
when further reform of the voting age is a
salient political issue. Reform of the age of
enfranchisement in the UK has been shaped
by four distinct stages. The 1832 Reform Act
established the rst national laws of (male
only) enfranchisement, with the voting age
linked to the minimum age of property
ownership, 21. The expansion of the franchise
between 1918 and 1928 saw full universal
surage achieved by lowering the voting
age for women from 30 to 21. The third stage
occurred with the 1969 Representation of the
People Act lowering the voting age to 18. The
most recent stage has seen the introduction
of ‘Votes at 16’ for some elections in Scotland,
with Wales soon to follow.
This article explores the politics of
enfranchisement, drawing upon research from
our ongoing Leverhulme Trust project which
analyses historical and contemporary debates
‘Votes at 16’ and
Lessons From 1969
Demands for 16 and 17-year-olds to be allowed to vote in UK elections
are growing. Based on new research, Thomas Loughran, Andrew
Mycock, and Jon Tonge argue that any reforms need to consider more
than just lowering the franchise age.
about voting age reform. Current debates
concerning ‘Votes at 16’ rarely reference
‘Votes at 18’ or its impact on youth political
participation. Moreover, there has been no
attempt by the UK or devolved governments
to evaluate ‘Votes at 18’ to facilitate policy
learning. This oversight is signicant as the
decision to lower the voting age to 18 oers
important insights concerning the potential
impacts of ‘Votes at 16’.
‘Votes at 18’: The debates of the late
1960s
Unlike the previous reform of the voting age
in the UK, the Labour government’s 1969 act
was not a defensive reaction of political elites
to popular pressure to expand the franchise.
Calls for voting age reform rst surfaced a
decade earlier as a recommendation of the
Political Insight SEPT2019.indd 32 01/08/2019 14:10
To continue reading
Request your trial