Children, Voting, and the Meaning of Universal Suffrage

Abstract

Although universal suffrage is a broad franchise model, it allows for exclusions provided they are robustly justified. In practice, therefore, suffrage is never universal. Every modern democracy operates with its own exclusion principles, but they are all bounded by some sort of age exclusion screening for competence. However, there is another way to conceptualise universal suffrage – a conceptualisation that finds credence in existing international treaties, and which better fulfil democracies governing promise of political equality. In this model, inclusivity and universalism remain the default, and franchise exclusions are subjected to more rigorous testing. To demonstrate the potential of this framework, I apply it to questions of children’s suffrage, arguing that the theoretical grounds for excluding children are insufficient to overturn the default principles of universalism and inclusion.