Votes at 16? How the Rest of the World Does it
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058241238185 |
| Author | Christine Huebner,Constanza Sanhueza Petrarca |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
8POLITICAL INSIGHT•MARCH 2024
Introduction
In recent years, debates about reforms of the
voting age – from 18 to 16 years of age – have
been gearing up in many democracies around
the world. Campaigns for a lowering of the
voting age have emerged in more than 25
countries, with proposals in Ireland, Canada,
and Australia gaining substantial traction. Most
recently, Germany and Belgium pledged to
enfranchise 16- and 17-year-olds for European
elections and in New Zealand a bill to include
young people in local elections is currently
passing through the parliamentary stages.
The voting age for Scottish elections
was lowered in 2015, with Wales following
suit ve years later. But there has been little
movement on demands for 16- and 17-year-
olds to be allowed to vote in UK elections.
Westminster has not always been so slow
to change. Britain was the rst country to
lower the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1969,
leading a wave of reforms of the voting age in
democracies around the world.
Debates about a further lowering of the
voting age for UK elections have so far often
focused on normative questions: what it
Votes at 16? How the
Rest of the World Does it
Christine Huebner and Constanza Sanhueza Petrarca examine
franchise reforms across the globe and ask how lowering the
minimum voting age can affect young people’s political engagement
and relationship with democracy.
means to be a voter and when young people
achieve important milestones of adulthood.
While debates on these questions are dicult
to settle, much can be learnt about how
voting age reforms aect young people’s
political engagement and relationship with
democracy from countries that have already
lowered the minimum voting age.
Evidence from countries with lower
voting ages
An increasing number of countries have
reformed the voting age. To date, 16- and
17-year-olds are allowed to vote in all
elections in seven countries – Austria,
Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Malta and
Nicaragua. Furthermore, in nine countries
under 18s are allowed to vote in some, but
not all elections – for example in municipal
© Jim West / Alamy Stock Photo
Political Insight March 2024.indd 8Political Insight March 2024.indd 819/02/2024 09:3119/02/2024 09:31
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