tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/voting-age-10397/articlesVoting age – The Conversation2023-07-06T03:51:51Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080952023-07-06T03:51:51Z2023-07-06T03:51:51ZShould the voting age in Australia be lowered to 16?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535232/original/file-20230703-252434-d5zg3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Attempts to lower the voting age in Australia to 16 have been historically <a href="https://law.unimelb.edu.au/centres/errn/about/past-events/lowering-the-voting-age-in-australia">unsuccessful</a>. More recently, the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwik97j_5d__AhWBSWwGHX-2BWoQFnoECBAQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makeit16.au%2F&usg=AOvVaw3O0c90Y1uz8y5KvToM7e_Y&opi=89978449">Make It 16 campaign</a> has been advocating for the enfranchisement of 16 and 17-year-olds, but with <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-13/lowering-the-voting-age-to-16/102473606">no fines</a> for under 18s who fail to cast their ballots. </p>
<p>Voluntary or not, lowering the voting age will have consequences for how political behaviour shapes political outcomes, especially for issues that particularly interest the young, such as climate change, cost of living, mental health and wellbeing. </p>
<p>Younger people tend to be more <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/28/young-australians-far-less-likely-than-parents-to-vote-coalition-as-they-get-older-report-finds">progressive</a> in their views. This in turn would alter the make-up of the Australian electorate at each election or referendum. The addition of socially progressive voters might well be <a href="https://reporter.anu.edu.au/all-stories/young-people-may-decide-the-outcome-of-the-voice-referendum-heres-why">decisive</a> on a highly contentious and divisive issue such as the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.</p>
<h2>Who should have the right to vote?</h2>
<p>In 1973, following mass youth casualties in the Vietnam War, Australia’s voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. The reasoning behind this centred on equity: if 18-year-olds were old enough to fight and die, they should be old enough to vote. </p>
<p>Today’s equity arguments centre on taxation: many 16 and 17-year-olds pay tax and therefore should have equal rights to representation. However, this representation logic is not <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Electoral_Matters/VotingAge/Advisory_report/section?id=committees%2Freportjnt%2F024195%2F26301#:%7E:text=Civics%20education,-2.81&text=Lowering%20the%20voluntary%20voting%20age,for%20politics%20and%20civics%20education.">unique</a> to 16 and 17-year-olds. It applies equally well to those under 16, as well as to tourists and temporary residents, who pay tax but do not have the right to vote.</p>
<p>Beyond the taxation argument, the franchise has been aligned with other adult responsibilities such as driving a car and consenting to sex. An important point of distinction, though, is the motivation: do they actually want to vote? </p>
<p>Although enthusiastic young leaders are driving campaigns such as Make It 16, we cannot be confident that a subset of politically engaged young people is representative of the Australian youth. There is no question about the cognitive abilities of 16 to 17-year-olds to engage with the electoral process. But there is little longitudinal data to firmly establish that younger people are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/do-young-people-care-about-politics/10905604">enthused</a> about voting. </p>
<p>That is not to say young people are not <a href="https://theconversation.com/young-australians-are-supposedly-turning-their-backs-on-democracy-but-are-they-any-different-from-older-voters-163891">interested in politics</a>. <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/292274/2/Full%20Thesis%20Revisions_clean%20copy.pdf">Evidence</a> from Australia and elsewhere shows young people engage differently: their engagement with politics is based more on issues than party loyalties. </p>
<p>Being able to vote would mean younger people feel less excluded and alienated from politics. However, critics <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/gen-z-pushing-for-australias-voting-age-to-be-lowered-to-16/news-story/ba9103ed2b5bb825b9178b6efb52a1d9">worry</a> voluntary voting for 16 to 17-year-olds would weaken compulsory voting. </p>
<p>Australia’s compulsory voting means it has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10361146.2021.1899131">resisted</a> youth electoral disengagement at the polls, which has markedly happened in other non-compulsory voting democracies. Given the highly transitory life stage they are in, young people are more likely to abstain if voting is voluntary. This would also run the risk of imprinting the habit of abstention.</p>
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<h2>What does the evidence suggest?</h2>
<p>Data from the Australian Election Study <a href="https://australianelectionstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/McAllister-Voting-Age-2014.pdf">suggest</a> lowering the voting age would not invigorate electoral participation. It is likely early enfranchisement alone <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Electoral_Matters/VotingAge/Advisory_report/section?id=committees%2Freportjnt%2F024195%2F26301#footnote28target">will not be a panacea</a> for youth engagement. Rather, there are concerns that voluntary voting might further exacerbate the problem of lower youth enrolment. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/292274/2/Full%20Thesis%20Revisions_clean%20copy.pdf">comparative study</a> of youth electoral disengagement in advanced democracies studied a suite of institutional factors, including: </p>
<ul>
<li>electoral system (majoritarian versus proportional)</li>
<li>type of executive (parliamentary/presidential)</li>
<li>type of system (federal/unitary)</li>
<li>party system (two/multi)</li>
<li>voting age (16-21). </li>
</ul>
<p>I found that, even when controlling for compulsory voting, it is the registration system that significantly influences generational engagement at the polls. </p>
<p>Transition to adulthood is characterised by increasing mobility in every aspect of life. On top of this, registration rules make it difficult for young people without a permanent, long-term residence to register to vote. </p>
<p>Within the voluntary registration system, young people are especially disadvantaged since new eligible voters are often unfamiliar with the registration system, including how and where to register to vote. Consequently, many confused, eligible voters inadvertently miss voter registration deadlines. Current <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/Enrolling_to_vote/Enrolment_stats/performance/national-youth.htm">evidence</a> shows voter enrolment is lowest among those aged 18-24, at 89.5%, compared to a <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/enrolling_to_vote/enrolment_stats/">national figure</a> of 97.2%.</p>
<p>However, what has been largely missing in the voting age debate is that lowering it to 16 may be a way to redress this enrolment discrepancy. It may be an institutional design feature that could cater to youth transition: 16-17-year-olds are more likely to be in parental homes when they enrol and then finally vote. This may help attract and keep them as active voters as they gain independence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lowering the voting age would likely be a boon for the Greens party.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jono Searle/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What does this mean for (major) parties?</h2>
<p>The Coalition’s historic low support among young voters in the <a href="https://australianelectionstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/The-2022-Australian-Federal-Election-Results-from-the-Australian-Election-Study.pdf">2022 federal election</a> may be a symptom of a long-lasting generational shift in the electorate. In the past two elections, only 26% of Gen Z voters, born after 1996, reported voting for the Coalition, while 67% of them voted either for the Greens or Labor. Although historically young people have tended to become more conservative as they age, <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/millennials-are-getting-older-but-not-more-conservative-20221205-p5c3na">recent evidence</a> suggests voters born after 1980 are not doing that.</p>
<p>Extrapolating this trajectory of voting preferences, the addition of more socially progressive, issue-based younger voters will potentially benefit the left-of-centre parties, particularly the Greens. One political reason for Labor’s reluctance to lower the voting age seems to be the stark popularity of the Greens among Gen Z voters, which would increase the Greens threat to the incumbent.</p>
<p>Over the years, both major parties have been losing their (youth) votes to the Greens. Lowering the voting age may well pronounce this.</p>
<h2>What would it mean for young voters?</h2>
<p>Given the context of compulsory voting, Australia is best placed to implement the lowering of voting age to reap the benefits of engaging younger voters to the electorate. Much <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/push-to-follow-overseas-lead-and-lower-voting-age-to-16-gains-momentum-20220401-p5aa3o.html">has been said</a> about how this would improve youth representation, efficacy and outcomes. </p>
<p>However, lowering the voting age might not address the problem of <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/overly-suspicious-youth-or-dodgy-politicians/">youth distrust</a> of politicians and the widening gap between younger generations and political parties. This would require a sincere effort to understand what causes the drift, before enfranchising younger voters and loosely tying them to a voluntary voting system. In fact, there is a real risk that voluntary voting might encourage the type of abstention driven by a strong dislike for politicians. </p>
<p>Enfranchising hundreds and thousands of additional voters would also inevitably raise the issues of ensuring proper enrolment and that young voters are well informed to vote. It would need to be accompanied by a major boost to <a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-are-not-adequately-preparing-young-australians-to-participate-in-our-democracy-88131">civics education</a> in Australian secondary schools.</p>
<p>All in all, while compulsory voting is the best system for lowering the voting age, we’d have to be careful not to undermine the system as it stands. Instead, it is important to tie it to efforts to inform younger voters and reduce the age-related barriers in a (compulsory) electoral process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Intifar Chowdhury does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are several strong arguments for allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote. But there are potential pitfalls, too.Intifar Chowdhury, Youth Researcher, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2017542023-03-22T01:07:29Z2023-03-22T01:07:29ZThrowing voting-age legislation onto the ‘policy bonfire’ only delays a debate that has to happen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516548/original/file-20230321-28-18kei4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C1414%2C7645%2C3690&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There might have been pragmatic political reasons behind the government throwing voting-age legislation onto its recent <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/03/prime-minister-chris-hipkins-abandons-plan-for-legislation-to-lower-voting-age-for-general-elections.html">policy bonfire</a>, but it remains a sadly wasted opportunity. </p>
<p>The announcement reversed former prime minister <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/479195/voting-age-16-law-to-be-drafted-requiring-three-quarters-of-mps-to-pass-ardern">Jacinda Ardern’s promise</a> to introduce legislation to lower the voting age to 16. That was in response to the <a href="https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/assets/cases/2022/2022-NZSC-134.pdf">Supreme Court’s ruling</a> last year that the current voting age of 18 was an unjustifiable restriction on the right of 16- and 17-year-olds to be free from age discrimination. </p>
<p>As the court acknowledged, ultimately it is up to parliament or New Zealand voters to decide if and how to respond. But the court’s “declaration of inconsistency” had a bit more constitutional heft due to a recent <a href="https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2022/0045/latest/LMS324098.html">amendment</a> to the Bill of Rights Act.</p>
<p>Along with parliament’s standing orders (its “rules of procedure”), the law change created a procedural pathway requiring parliament to respond to and debate such a declaration within six months. Last year’s introduction of a bill to lower the voting age was a <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/479271/labour-considers-voting-age-change-for-council-elections">first step</a> in that democratic process.</p>
<p>The withdrawal of the bill leaves that process looking uncertain. The immediate reason given was the apparent impossibility of it gaining the <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/479195/voting-age-16-law-to-be-drafted-requiring-three-quarters-of-mps-to-pass-ardern">75% super-majority</a> the bill needed to pass (the National Party and Act said they would not support the legislation).</p>
<p>Not pushing a doomed bill through an expensive political process when the country faces a cost-of-living crisis was clearly part of the government’s thinking, too. But there will still be a price paid by young New Zealanders denied the right to vote. </p>
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<h2>Why the U-turn matters</h2>
<p>In practical terms, the withdrawal of the bill presents a lost opportunity for public and political debate around the fundamental rights to vote and to be free from discrimination. </p>
<p>Voting is a core democratic right. Deciding who can exercise the right is an intensely political matter on which there is a range of views. But, as the Supreme Court noted, there were strong reasons for issuing the declaration of inconsistency. </p>
<p>Firstly, the case involves a minority group, and the ongoing discrimination means that group’s fundamental rights are afforded less protection. This position was aptly described by the <a href="https://elections.nz/assets/Report-of-the-Royal-Commission-on-the-Electoral-System-1986/Chapter-9-administration-of-the-system.pdf">Royal Commission on the Electoral System</a> in 1986. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/parliament-now-has-to-justify-keeping-the-voting-age-at-18-its-a-hard-argument-to-make-195009">Parliament now has to justify keeping the voting age at 18 – it’s a hard argument to make</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>It concluded that the voting age should be lowered, saying “children’s rights are not often the subject of public attention and must therefore be a particular concern of governments and the law” – even if the public was not ready for such change.</p>
<p>Secondly, New Zealand’s legal obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child mean it must implement the child’s right to <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child">freely express their views</a>, taking into account the child’s age and maturity. </p>
<p>This is especially important given the Supreme Court’s consideration of research submitted by the Children’s Commissioner indicating that 16-year-olds have the cognitive capacity to make informed voting choices. </p>
<p>The 1986 royal commission also found it was hard to sustain the argument that children lacked the required competence to exercise their right to vote. Research at the time already showed the social and political world view of 15- or 16-year-olds was similar to that of adults.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lowering-new-zealands-voting-age-to-16-would-be-good-for-young-people-and-good-for-democracy-145008">Lowering New Zealand's voting age to 16 would be good for young people – and good for democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>A step in the right direction</h2>
<p>One brighter note is the government’s promise to introduce legislation to lower the voting age in local body elections. This could be progressed by the sitting of the next parliament, and only requires the support of half of MPs.</p>
<p>There also appears to be <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/479271/labour-considers-voting-age-change-for-council-elections">greater support</a> across the political spectrum for this initiative. And the recent <a href="https://www.futureforlocalgovernment.govt.nz/assets/Review-into-the-Future-for-Local-Govt-Draft-Report.pdf">draft report</a> of the government’s review of reforming local government recommended the voting age for local elections be 16.</p>
<p>Denying young people the right to vote is based on a perceived need to protect young people, adult voters and representative democracy from naivety or incompetence. Yet by mounting a successful legal challenge all the way to the Supreme Court, young people demonstrated ample maturity and cognitive ability. </p>
<p>The political and public debates to come must be informed by the wide and longstanding body of research that challenges prevailing attitudes opposed to young people gaining the right to vote. And then the law needs to catch up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201754/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Breen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s plenty of research supporting lowering the voting age to 16. Public debate and the law just need to catch up.Claire Breen, Professor of Law, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1978232023-01-24T17:49:02Z2023-01-24T17:49:02ZScottish elections: young people more likely to vote if they started at 16 – new study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505614/original/file-20230120-24-v0xb3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C0%2C4351%2C2865&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A healthy democracy needs widespread, equal voting.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/election-scotland-voting-ballot-box-hand-735158005">andriano.cz / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, interest in lowering the voting age is growing. Major efforts to change the laws are underway in <a href="https://vote16.ca/">Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.makeit16.org.nz/">New Zealand</a>, while Germany recently lowered the voting age for European parliament elections. </p>
<p>But so far, there have been few opportunities to learn from countries that have done it successfully. Austria and a handful of Latin American countries have had more than a decade of votes at 16. Others, like Estonia (for local elections), Malta and some states in Germany have joined the effort in recent years.</p>
<p>Scotland lowered its voting age to 16 ahead of the independence referendum in 2014, and for all Scottish elections starting in 2015. After the 2014 election, <a href="https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/why-ruth-davidson-supports-votes-at-16/">politicians</a>, <a href="https://www.democraticaudit.com/2014/08/29/there-is-much-that-can-be-learned-from-scotlands-decision-to-lower-the-voting-age-for-the-independence-referendum/">analysts</a> and the <a href="https://www.democraticaudit.com/2014/05/09/scottish-votes-at-16/">Scottish Youth Parliament</a> hailed the decision to lower the age as a <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-32541-1_7">success</a>. </p>
<p>Newly enfranchised young people voted in <a href="https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf_file/Scottish-independence-referendum-report.pdf">greater numbers</a> than slightly older peers. Social class differences in voting habits were <a href="https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2022.0407">much less pronounced</a> among 16- and 17-year-olds in Scotland, than among older Scottish voters and young people in the rest of the UK. Even the Scottish Conservatives <a href="https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/why-ruth-davidson-supports-votes-at-16/">dropped their initial opposition</a> and endorsed a younger voting age.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/votes-at-16-in-scotland-study">new study</a> reveals which of these patterns have lasted, by examining voter turnout in the 2021 Scottish parliament elections, seven years after the age limit was changed. Scotland is now one of the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-32541-1_2">small set of longer-term case studies</a> on the outcomes of lowering the voting age.</p>
<p>Typically, electoral data shows that turnout is low when voters are in the early years of adulthood, and increases in their mid to late twenties. But 16- and 17-year-olds, when enfranchised, tend to vote in greater numbers than 18- to 24-year-olds. <a href="https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf_file/Scottish-independence-referendum-report.pdf">This was the case in Scotland in 2014-15</a> (when the voting age was lowered). Now we know that this habit has lasted. </p>
<p>We looked at the 2021 election data for the cohorts of voters who were first enfranchised at age 16. Indeed, they continued to turn out in higher numbers, even into their twenties, than young people who attained the right to vote later, at age 18.</p>
<p>In other words, if you give people the right to vote earlier in life, they appear more likely to make voting a habit.</p>
<h2>Voting inequality</h2>
<p>Among the youngest voters in the 2021 election (16- and 17-year-old first-timers), social class made little to no difference in young people’s likelihood to vote. However, this was not the case for young people in their twenties. For them, turnout was unequal across social classes. </p>
<p>Young adults with parents from higher social classes turned out more often in the 2021 elections than those from lower social classes (except among 16- and 17-year-olds). Apparently, once voters reached the age of 18, and indeed throughout their twenties, the inequalities emerged again, regardless of when they were enfranchised.</p>
<p>The UK has some of the most pressing political inequality in Europe, particularly among young people. In a major 2010 <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED512412">study of 36 countries</a>, England had one of the largest gaps in political understanding between school students from lower and higher occupational status households (topped only by Bulgaria). Inequalities that lead to uneven turnout in elections are a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2952255">problem for democracy</a>, because non-voters tend to be less well-represented in the politics that result from an election. </p>
<h2>Making change last</h2>
<p>Our findings tell us that enfranchising people younger might help reduce voting inequality in the short term. But the impact doesn’t seem to last longer than a few years. Families and the resources, attitudes, and political behaviour they pass on to children influence whether or not young people decide to vote once they are allowed to do so. We see that effect in our research.</p>
<p>The one factor that can offset some of these family inequalities is good civic education in the classroom. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676261.2018.1450968">Research shows that students</a> who engage with social and political issues through civic education are more likely to vote in elections. </p>
<p>Our study confirms that this still matters to young people in Scotland into early adulthood. Young people aged 16 to 31 who recalled taking a course where political issues were discussed were more likely to vote than people who hadn’t taken such a course. </p>
<p>Not everyone has the same quality or access to civic education. Local authorities decide on the nature and extent of the delivery of civic education, which often takes place in Scotland’s <a href="https://www.jsse.org/index.php/jsse/article/view/5853">modern studies courses</a>.</p>
<p>When resources are constrained, some schools cannot afford to dedicate equal amounts of time to civic education. This results in a postcode lottery for young people, and some will miss out on the support they might need to exercise their right to vote. </p>
<p>It’s not enough to make sure that young people keep voting – a healthy democracy needs the habit to stick equally for young people of all backgrounds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197823/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The data collection for this project was funded through a grant from the Scottish Government.
The analyses presented were carried out independently by the authors of the study and all views
expressed are solely the views of the authors.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The data collection for this project was funded through a grant from the Scottish Government. </span></em></p>If you give people the right to vote earlier in life, they are more likely to build a lasting habit.Jan Eichhorn, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, The University of EdinburghChristine Huebner, Lecturer in Quantitative Social Sciences, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1950092022-11-21T22:50:46Z2022-11-21T22:50:46ZParliament now has to justify keeping the voting age at 18 – it’s a hard argument to make<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496599/original/file-20221121-18772-bebq50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C7%2C5009%2C3342&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyI mages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week’s <a href="https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/assets/cases/2022/2022-NZSC-134.pdf">Supreme Court judgment</a> on lowering New Zealand’s legal voting age has, at times, been interpreted as some kind of mandate for change. That’s not quite the case, but the court’s ruling does at least make change a possibility.</p>
<p>What the court has done is accept the claims made by members of the <a href="https://www.makeit16.org.nz/">Make It 16</a> campaign that the current voting age limit of 18 is inconsistent with <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/DLM225519.html">section 19</a> of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. Essentially, it found, preventing 16- and 17-year-olds from voting discriminates against them on the basis of their age. </p>
<p>The court also accepted that this inconsistency has not been justified. While that doesn’t mean the age limit cannot be justified, the <a href="https://legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2020/0230/latest/LMS324098.html">New Zealand Bill of Rights (Declarations of Inconsistency) Amendment Bill</a> means legislation can be found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights. </p>
<p>The decision effectively means parliament now has to defend the 18 age limit if it wants to keep it. However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/479195/voting-age-16-law-to-be-drafted-requiring-three-quarters-of-mps-to-pass-ardern">already announced</a> her government will draft a bill to lower the voting age (requiring a three-quarter majority to pass). She’s also said she personally supports lowering the voting age. </p>
<p>This rapid shift of the electoral landscape provides a good opportunity to restate the arguments in favour of lowering the voting age – and to ask whether retaining the 18 age limit can be justified at all.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1594540882497503232"}"></div></p>
<h2>Voting is a human right</h2>
<p>When the 2020 general election was delayed due to COVID, it meant a group of young people were suddenly eligible to vote because they had turned 18 in the interim.</p>
<p>As I <a href="https://theconversation.com/lowering-new-zealands-voting-age-to-16-would-be-good-for-young-people-and-good-for-democracy-145008">noted then</a>, the choice of where to set the voting age is not made on the basis of some immutable facts about the capacity of the young to vote. Rather, it is a procedural decision. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lowering-new-zealands-voting-age-to-16-would-be-good-for-young-people-and-good-for-democracy-145008">Lowering New Zealand's voting age to 16 would be good for young people – and good for democracy</a>
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<p>Setting the voting age at 18 made some sense when it was introduced in 1974 (down from 20). It was a convenient number that coincided with some (but not all) other age limits for the granting of rights in our society. </p>
<p>But the right to vote is different to the right to buy alcohol, for example, which is also restricted to those 18 or over. Unlike buying alcohol, voting is a human right. Any restrictions on human rights must be demonstrably reasonable restrictions. </p>
<p>The Make It 16 campaign argued, and the Supreme Court has now agreed, that parliament has not provided that justification for setting the voting age at 18. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1594479999196749824"}"></div></p>
<h2>Improve civic education</h2>
<p>Parliament will find it difficult to provide a satisfactory justification for continuing to exclude 16- and 17-year-olds. </p>
<p>The most popular arguments against letting these young people vote – that they aren’t interested or capable – are subjective, anecdotal or simply not very good. Another common argument – that they don’t pay tax – is both wrong (many work and they also pay GST) and irrelevant to enfranchisement. </p>
<p>A key part of a good argument is that it can be applied consistently. If we wanted to exclude young people for being uninterested or incapable, we would have to be willing to exclude the many adults who are uninterested or incapable. We do not do this, and nor should we. </p>
<p>If an adult doesn’t want to vote, they don’t have to. The same would be true for a 16-year-old if the voting age was lowered. Making the voting age 16 simply gives young citizens the opportunity to vote. </p>
<p>It then falls to society to encourage them to learn who they should vote for. If we want better-educated voters, we should look to improve <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-lowering-the-voting-age-to-16-could-save-democracy-93567">civic education</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/young-u-s-voters-reduced-the-red-wave-to-a-pink-splash-in-the-midterm-elections-why-didnt-polls-predict-it-194507">Young U.S. voters reduced the 'Red Wave' to a 'Pink Splash' in the midterm elections — why didn't polls predict it?</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Good habits start young</h2>
<p>There are, however, two good arguments in favour of lowering the voting age: it seems to improve voter turnout, and voting from a young age increases the likelihood people will become regular voters, consistently participating in the democratic process. </p>
<p>Both these claims may seem counter-intuitive. After all, isn’t it well known that young people vote in lower numbers than older people? It is. But that may simply be because we don’t give young people the opportunity to vote until it’s too late. </p>
<p>In Austria, which has <a href="https://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/en/analyses/voting-at-16-in-austria-a-possible-model-for-the-eu/">allowed voting from 16</a> since 2008, participation rates among young voters improved significantly once the voting age was lowered. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-lowering-the-voting-age-to-16-could-save-democracy-93567">How lowering the voting age to 16 could save democracy</a>
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<p>One theory is that 16- and 17-year-olds are often in more stable situations than 18- or 19-year-olds – still in school, usually still living with family. When they are allowed to vote, they are more likely to be supported or encouraged by their family and school.</p>
<p>A strong indicator of whether someone will vote is whether they voted the last time they had the opportunity. Given more young people vote when offered the chance earlier in life, a lower voting age will result in higher levels of lifetime voting. </p>
<p>It is much easier to care about politics when you are allowed to participate in it. Lowering the voting age will give young people more reason to be invested in their political system. Over time, this will make our democracy stronger and more legitimate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Munn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Supreme Court has found the current voting age limit discriminates against young people. But there are other good arguments for lowering the age, including strengthening our democracy.Nick Munn, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1801082022-04-06T13:31:03Z2022-04-06T13:31:03ZWhy lowering the voting age in Canada is such a good idea<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455955/original/file-20220403-26-z9vvbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=931%2C0%2C2438%2C3227&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are several moves afoot to lower the voting age from 18 to 16. It's long overdue.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Three initiatives aimed at lowering the voting age in Canadian federal elections are reigniting conversations about youth enfranchisement. </p>
<p>A group of young people is <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8418542/canada-minimum-voting-age-lawsuit/">suing the federal government</a>, claiming that disenfranchisement of those under 18 is unconstitutional.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455956/original/file-20220403-111102-wb3pe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dark-haired man smiles among other men with grey hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455956/original/file-20220403-111102-wb3pe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455956/original/file-20220403-111102-wb3pe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455956/original/file-20220403-111102-wb3pe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455956/original/file-20220403-111102-wb3pe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455956/original/file-20220403-111102-wb3pe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455956/original/file-20220403-111102-wb3pe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455956/original/file-20220403-111102-wb3pe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">NDP MP Taylor Bachrach in Ottawa shortly after he got elected in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>NDP MP Taylor Bachrach has introduced a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/voting-age-canada-taylor-bachrach-1.6284418">private members bill</a> to lower the voting age to 16. The first reading in the House of Commons was completed <a href="https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/c-210">late last year</a>. </p>
<p>A similar act (Bill S-201) to amend Canada’s minimum voting age from 18 to 16 is currently at <a href="https://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/en/bill/44-1/S-201">second reading in the Senate</a>. <a href="https://sencanada.ca/en/senators/mcphedran-marilou/interventions/569780/27#hID">Sen. Marilou McPhedran</a> introduced a similar bill in 2021 and it passed second reading. But the fall 2021 election put an end to that process.</p>
<p>This is the 11th attempt to lower Canada’s voting age since it was changed from <a href="https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=bkg&document=ec90785&lang=e">21 to 18 in 1970</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ubcm-16-vote-age-2019-1.5299066">Some municipal</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-voting-age-16-green-1.5995601">and provincial</a> jurisdictions in Canada have considered lowering their voting age. So have other countries, including the <a href="https://www.politics.co.uk/reference/voting-age-2/">United Kingdom</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2013.868402">Australia</a> and New Zealand. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lowering-new-zealands-voting-age-to-16-would-be-good-for-young-people-and-good-for-democracy-145008">Lowering New Zealand's voting age to 16 would be good for young people – and good for democracy</a>
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<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/view-large/282896085">Thirteen countries</a>, ranging from Brazil to Nicaragua, Ecuador, Austria, Estonia and Malta, already have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsab019">voting ages under 18</a>. The <a href="https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=18015&lang=en">Council of Europe</a> has urged its member countries to follow suit.</p>
<p>In Canada, the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/video/5932635/federal-election-2019-jagmeet-singh-proposes-lowering-voting-age-to-16">federal NDP</a> and <a href="https://www.greenparty.ca/en/vote-16">Green Party</a> publicly support a younger voting age. The federal Conservative, NDP and Liberal parties already allow members as young as 14 to vote in leadership contests.</p>
<p>Proponents of the bills <a href="https://www.interior-news.com/news/bachrach-has-faith-16-year-olds-will-take-voting-seriously/">in Parliament</a> and <a href="https://vote16.ca">the Senate</a>, and the applicants to the <a href="https://childrenfirstcanada.org/press-releases/young-canadians-file-court-challenge-to-lower-federal-voting-age-calling-it-unconstitutional/">Ontario Superior Court of Justice</a>, hope to build on this momentum. </p>
<p>There are four main arguments for lowering the voting age:</p>
<h2>1. Youth most affected by today’s pressing issues</h2>
<p>Many of the key issues of today — like climate change, environmental degradation, the COVID-19 pandemic and social and racial justice — have serious consequences for young people, now and in the future. </p>
<p>Many leading Canadian and international environmental advocates are under the age of 18. Autumn Peltier, for example, was named <a href="https://www.anishinabek.ca/2019/04/26/autumn-peltier-appointed-anishinabek-nation-chief-water-commissioner/">Chief Water Commissioner for the Aniishnabek Nation</a> at the age of 14 and addressed the United Nations General Assembly at <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/autumn-peltier-un-water-activist-united-nations-1.4584871">age 13</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canadian-indigenous-water-activist-autumn-peltier-addresses-un-on-clean-water-1.5301559">and 15</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1454848160770240518"}"></div></p>
<p>Children and young people have disproportionately experienced <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/learning-loss-covid19-1.6214714">the education</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.9778/cmajo.20210042">health and</a> <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/october-2020/young-canadians-and-the-long-tail-of-the-covid-crisis/">economic consequences</a> of the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/world-childrens-day-young-people-deserve-to-be-heard-during-covid-19-149904">World Children’s Day: Young people deserve to be heard during COVID-19</a>
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<p>Many young people under the age of 18 are actively involved in social justice movements, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109860118">Black Lives Matter</a> and <a href="https://www.bcachievement.com/2020/09/29/every-child-matters-the-meaning-behind-orange-shirt-day/">Every Child Matters.</a></p>
<p>Under the UN’s <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> — which is almost universally ratified — children have the right to participate in decisions that affect them. </p>
<p>Lowering the voting age is one way to provide a formal process for decision-making and accountability by elected representatives. In fact, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/elections">the right to vote is a human right</a>, protected by domestic and international law.</p>
<h2>2. Could fuel political engagement</h2>
<p>Lowering the age to a time when young people are enrolled in high school <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789460910258_003">civics classes</a> could increase <a href="https://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/en/analyses/voting-at-16-in-austria-a-possible-model-for-the-eu/">formal political participation</a> and strengthen democracy. </p>
<p>Despite the political consciousness and engagement of children and young people, there is still <a href="https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=rec/part/tud&document=youth&lang=e">widespread apathy and declining participation</a> among young adult voters.</p>
<p>Research across jurisdictions that have introduced under-18 voting indicates that the impact is “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsab019">often positive in terms of political engagement and civic attitudes</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students toss their graduation caps into the air while posing for family photos." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455958/original/file-20220403-16-qro0v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455958/original/file-20220403-16-qro0v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455958/original/file-20220403-16-qro0v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455958/original/file-20220403-16-qro0v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455958/original/file-20220403-16-qro0v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455958/original/file-20220403-16-qro0v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455958/original/file-20220403-16-qro0v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students toss their caps into the air while posing for family photos after a graduation ceremony at a Vancouver high school in June 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Would align with other age minimums</h2>
<p>The current voting age does not align with the minimum age of many other activities that require maturity and judgment, such as driving, consensual sex and paid work. </p>
<p>Most tellingly, the age of criminal responsibility in Canada is 12 under the <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/yj-jj/tools-outils/back-hist.html">Youth Criminal Justice Act</a>. </p>
<p>If children as young as 12 are considered mature enough to be held criminally responsible for their actions, why can’t 16-year-olds vote? </p>
<p>If children can work and pay taxes, why don’t they have a say in how their taxes are spent? </p>
<p>These contradictions highlight adult-centric norms and everyday age discrimination manifested in arbitrary, chronological age cut-offs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A teenaged boy on a skateboard holds bags of popcorn as he moves along a long row of cars on a highway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455960/original/file-20220404-11-wxhz3g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455960/original/file-20220404-11-wxhz3g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455960/original/file-20220404-11-wxhz3g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455960/original/file-20220404-11-wxhz3g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455960/original/file-20220404-11-wxhz3g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455960/original/file-20220404-11-wxhz3g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455960/original/file-20220404-11-wxhz3g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An entrepreneur who can’t vote: A teenaged boy uses a skateboard to move up and down selling popcorn to southern Alberta residents lining up to get COVID-19 vaccines in May 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Would eradicate ageist assumptions</h2>
<p>Ageist assumptions against those under 18 mirror <a href="https://humanrights.ca/story/the-chaotic-story-of-the-right-to-vote-in-canada">historically sexist and racist arguments</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59074-9_12">disenfranchise women</a> and <a href="https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=rec/part/APRC/vot_rights&document=p4&lang=e">Indigenous people</a>.</p>
<p>One such argument is that those under the age of 18 lack the cognitive, emotional and moral maturity to vote. However, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1037%2Flhb0000315">psychological research</a> suggests that young people have adult-level cognitive capacity by age 16.</p>
<p>Others argue that parents will influence their children’s voting behaviour. But some studies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323115577306">indicate that peers</a>, rather than adults, have greater influence over political behaviour and socialization. Results from Student Vote Canada, while not representative, show different voting outcomes for the 2021 election <a href="https://studentvote.ca/canada/results/">among students</a> versus the <a href="https://www.elections.ca/enr/help/national_e.htm">official results</a>.</p>
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<img alt="A teenager with a mop of dark hair looks back as he walks past a high school with a friend. " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455959/original/file-20220403-15-3n1wlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455959/original/file-20220403-15-3n1wlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455959/original/file-20220403-15-3n1wlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455959/original/file-20220403-15-3n1wlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455959/original/file-20220403-15-3n1wlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455959/original/file-20220403-15-3n1wlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455959/original/file-20220403-15-3n1wlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A teenager looks back as he walks beside a friend past a Toronto high school in May 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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<p>Some might argue that people under the age of 18 <a href="https://irpp.org/fr/research-studies/political-knowledge-and-participation-among-young-canadians-and-americans/">lack sufficient knowledge about policies and democracy</a> to make informed decisions. </p>
<p>However, many Canadian adults also lack basic <a href="https://theconversation.com/ottawa-convoy-protest-points-to-a-failure-of-civic-education-in-canada-177271">civic literacy</a>. Adult voters are not necessarily more informed about policy issues than young people when <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/1/15515820/donald-trump-democracy-brexit-2016-election-europe">making political choices</a>. </p>
<p>Voting rights in Canada have changed over time to become more inclusive. Challenging age discrimination in Canada’s election system could be the next step in expanding and strengthening our democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180108/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christina Clark-Kazak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Voting rights in Canada have changed over time to become more inclusive. Challenging age discrimination in Canada’s election system could be the next step in expanding and strengthening our democracy.Christina Clark-Kazak, Associate Professor, Public and International Affairs, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1773702022-04-06T02:38:14Z2022-04-06T02:38:14ZAt 16, Australians can drive, work and apply for the army – so why can’t they vote?<p>Young people are growing up in the shadow of a climate crisis and global conflict, amid sky-high housing costs and a precarious economy. For decades, government spending and policies have also been skewed in <a href="https://actuaries.asn.au/Library/Opinion/2020/AAIEIIGreenPaper170820.pdf">favour of older people</a>. Yet in Australia, young people don’t get to vote until they are 18. </p>
<p>While the idea of lowering the voting age has come up before, there is now renewed interest in allowing 16-year-olds to vote at the state and territory levels. </p>
<p>We need the voting age put on the national agenda in Australia as well. This 2022 federal election should be the last election to exclude 16 and 17-year-olds. </p>
<h2>Fresh moves to lower the voting age</h2>
<p>The ACT <a href="https://www.legislation.act.gov.au/b/db_65354">has been considering</a> reducing the voting age from 18 to 16 for territory elections and allow residents to enrol to vote as early as 14. This Greens-initiated bill has significant community support from groups such as the <a href="https://www.youthcoalition.net/lowering-the-voting-age-in-the-act/">Youth Coalition of the ACT</a> and <a href="https://www.parliament.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/1942787/Submission-12-ACTCOSS.pdf">ACT Council of Social Service</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-australia-lower-the-voting-age-to-16-we-asked-five-experts-104251">Should Australia lower the voting age to 16? We asked five experts</a>
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<p>There has not yet been a vote, but a Liberal-chaired parliamentary inquiry last month <a href="https://www.parliament.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1951077/JCS-Report-4-Inquiry-into-the-Electoral-Amendment-Bill-2021.pdf">recommended</a> the bill not be passed. </p>
<p>Last month, the NSW Greens similarly <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/bills/Pages/bill-details.aspx?pk=3943">announced</a> another bill, which would lower the voting age to 16 in that state by permitting, but not requiring 16-year-olds to vote. </p>
<h2>What about other countries?</h2>
<p>This is not the first time lowering the voting age has come up in Australia. </p>
<p>In 1973, during the Whitlam government, federal parliament lowered the minimum voting age from 21 to 18. In 2015, then Labor leader Bill Shorten <a href="https://theconversation.com/shorten-pledges-to-lower-voting-age-50028">pledged</a> to lower the voting age to 17 or 16. In 2018, the Greens also proposed voluntary voting rights for those aged 16 and 17, which resulted in a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Electoral_Matters/VotingAge">senate inquiry</a> but no change. </p>
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<img alt="Young men walk past a polling station." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451226/original/file-20220310-17-zoa2di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451226/original/file-20220310-17-zoa2di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451226/original/file-20220310-17-zoa2di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451226/original/file-20220310-17-zoa2di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451226/original/file-20220310-17-zoa2di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451226/original/file-20220310-17-zoa2di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451226/original/file-20220310-17-zoa2di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Many democracies around the world have lowered the voting age to 16.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span>
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<p>This is not a hypothetical concept. Many countries have lowered the voting age, including <a href="https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/voter-turnout/compulsory-voting">Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador</a> who also have compulsory voting.</p>
<p>In the 1990s, 16-year-olds were given the vote in Switzerland as well as in <a href="http://www.cje.org/descargas/cje4965.pdf">some German states</a>. In 2007, Austria adopted a voting age of 16 for most purposes. Brazil <a href="https://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/yt/yt20/lowering-the-voting-age">lowered</a> the voting age from 18 to 16 in 1988 and Malta in 2018. </p>
<p>Scotland’s <a href="https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/campaigns/votes-at-16/">voting age</a> is 16 for local and national parliament elections. The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey reduced the voting age to 16 for local elections in 2015. Cuba, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, North Korea, Nicaragua, and South Sudan, have a voting age of 17. </p>
<p>And if you think 16 is young, there is even debate among political scientists on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/16/reconstruction-after-covid-votes-for-children-age-six-david-runciman">merits</a> of lowering to voting age to as low as six. </p>
<h2>Encouraging young people to vote</h2>
<p>Research <a href="https://www.parliament.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/1942777/Submission-06-Professor-Judith-Bessant-and-29-others.pdf">shows</a> there are many benefits in lowering the voting age. </p>
<p>Giving young people the vote will <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5L_ADwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&ots=tCkLZmKRMl&sig=HI4QH1uvBn7N3xbDgZFxNf7zSUg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">encourage them</a> to register and turn up to vote on election day. In the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/pa/article/74/3/563/6320902">2014 Scottish independence referendum</a>, 16 and 17-year-olds voted at rates as high or higher than their 18 to 20-year-old peers. </p>
<p>This suggests lowering the voting age is part of the solution to the growing distrust in western governments, falling voter turnout and declining membership of political organisations. </p>
<h2>Political buy-in</h2>
<p>Being able to vote also means having direct democratic influence. </p>
<p>Politicians and others will be more inclined to visit the settings that matter for young people, including schools and higher education venues, and listen to their opinions, if young people are on the electoral roll. In turn, the experience of being recognised and having your views and interests taken into account can build confidence and trust in formal politics. </p>
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<img alt="Scott Morrison with school students during the 2019 federal campaign." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451237/original/file-20220310-27-139ysa2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451237/original/file-20220310-27-139ysa2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451237/original/file-20220310-27-139ysa2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451237/original/file-20220310-27-139ysa2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451237/original/file-20220310-27-139ysa2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451237/original/file-20220310-27-139ysa2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451237/original/file-20220310-27-139ysa2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Younger people voting will see politicians take them - and their views - more seriously.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
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<p>The fear that giving 16-year-olds the vote will affect election outcomes might explain major parties’ resistance to doing this. Certainly in Britain, the 2019 general election saw an unexpected influx of new young voters, leading some to talk about “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-97469-9">youthquake</a>”. </p>
<h2>Ageism at play</h2>
<p>Much of the opposition to reducing the voting age depends on ageism and the idea <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2004-15557-008?doi=1">young people</a> lack sufficient moral judgement, cognitive ability or life experience to vote responsibly. </p>
<p>But there is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348579072_Reconsidering_the_Minimum_Voting_Age_in_the_United_States">plenty of research</a> showing 16 year-olds have sufficient ethical and cognitive capacities to form political judgements. </p>
<p>We also know that by 16 you can do paid work, pay tax, enlist in the military, drive a car, consent to confidential health care and be charged with criminal offences. </p>
<h2>The least we can do</h2>
<p>Democracies have always been strengthened when more people are allowed to vote, from men without property to women, to Indigenous people and then those under 21.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-extract-from-secret-ballot-to-democracy-sausage-112695">Book extract: From secret ballot to democracy sausage</a>
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<p>It would be exactly the same if younger people were allowed to enrol and vote. </p>
<p>At the same time, lower the voting age acknowledges the national and global crises that young people are experiencing and will inherit. </p>
<p>Supporting the vote for young people who, by definition, have the greatest at stake in the political process, is the least that older generations can do to redress this imbalance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This upcoming 2022 federal election should be the last election to exclude 16 and 17-year-oldsFaith Gordon, Associate Professor in Law, Australian National UniversityJudith Bessant, Professor in School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT UniversitySusan M Sawyer, Professor of Adolescent Health The University of Melbourne; Director, Royal Children's Hospital Centre for Adolescent Health, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1654282021-11-29T16:18:51Z2021-11-29T16:18:51ZYoung children all find politics engaging but by 15 this has changed – new research shows why<p>At age 11, children from poorly educated families are as interested in politics as children from well-educated ones. But by the time they turn 15, children with well-educated parents are 10% more interested in politics than those with poorly educated parents.</p>
<p>The social gap in political engagement is one of the most <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb4912">persistent</a> problems in western democracies. It leads to disadvantaged people having less say in the democratic process. And it <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8454069/Levinson+The+Civic+Empowerment+Gap.pdf?sequence=1">skews</a> electoral results towards the interests of privileged groups in society. </p>
<p>Compared with much of Europe, the UK <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137489753">has the largest gap</a> in voting between young adults from middle-class and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-labour-failed-to-connect-with-the-british-working-class-128082">working-class</a> backgrounds. In a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sf/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sf/soab112/6369004">recent study</a> we sought to determine at what age the gap becomes apparent and whether it persists into adulthood. What determines how <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-must-seize-this-chance-to-bring-young-people-into-the-heart-of-british-democracy-62756">politically aware and active</a> a child will be?</p>
<h2>Youth engagement</h2>
<p>In 2020, we set out to explore the development of <a href="https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/project/post-16-educational-trajectories-and-social-inequalities-in-political-engagement">political engagement</a> between ages 11 and 25. We analysed data from the British Household Panel Study and its successor, <a href="https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/">Understanding Society</a>, the longest-running study of the UK population. </p>
<p>We relied on the question: “How interested would you say you are in politics?” to gauge political interest. And we used the education levels of parents and their political engagement as indicators of class background. </p>
<p>We found that, at age 11, children from the most and least educated families share a broadly similar level of interest in politics. In fact, children from less-educated families actually show a slightly higher level of interest. </p>
<p>However, by age 15 the political interest of children from the most educated parents has hardly changed: they remain as interested in politics as they were when they were 11. But for the least educated families, however, the level of interest children show in politics has markedly declined. After age 15, political interest rises steadily among both groups but the difference between them stays the same.</p>
<p>We also looked at <a href="https://theconversation.com/underpaid-overworked-and-drowning-in-debt-you-wonder-why-young-people-are-voting-again-85298">voting intentions</a>, which is an <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315725222-11/intention-vote-reported-vote-validated-vote-1-christopher-achen-andr%C3%A9-blais">important predictor</a> of voting behaviour. We measured this with a question that asked young people which party they would vote for as adults. We used the response options, “none” and “don’t know”, to signal a lack of intention. </p>
<p>As with political interest, we find a growing social gap on this indicator of political engagement. At age 11 there is no difference between children from well- and less well-educated families in their voting intentions. </p>
<p>As they grow older, both groups become more interested in voting for a particular party. However, this growth is stronger among children from well-educated families. </p>
<p>By age 15, these children express a much greater willingness to vote than their peers from disadvantaged backgrounds and this difference remains stable in the years thereafter. These patterns, therefore, suggest that early adolescence is a crucial stage for social differences in political engagement to emerge. </p>
<h2>Parental input</h2>
<p>The degree to which parents are politically engaged themselves seems to matter, too – and from an early age. We already see a large gap at age 11 between children from politically active families and those from disengaged ones, in terms of how interested they are in politics and whether they intend to vote. </p>
<p>This gap further widens during early adolescence. Children of parents who are not actively engaged in the political process are even less likely to be interested in becoming so by the time they’re 15.</p>
<p>After age 16, the gap stabilises. So, while early childhood seems to be the crucial phase for politically engaged parents to pass their preferences on to their children, early adolescence is the key phase when the education of parents begins to matter.</p>
<p>Our findings show that parents have a lasting influence on their children’s political development. Once established during childhood, social differences in political engagement continue into adulthood. These differences highlight how political inequality is transmitted through the generations. An important task of future research is to examine how exactly educated and engaged parents make their children become more politically engaged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165428/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan Germen Janmaat receives funding from The Nuffield Foundation. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryony Louise Hoskins receives funding from The Nuffield Foundation. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.</span></em></p>Understanding how early on in childhood political interest is sparked –– and what sparks it –– is crucial to giving more people a voiceJan Germen Janmaat, Professor of political socialization, Department of Education, Practice and Society, UCL Institute of Education, UCLBryony Louise Hoskins, Professor of Comparative Social Science, University of RoehamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1450082020-08-25T20:05:32Z2020-08-25T20:05:32ZLowering New Zealand’s voting age to 16 would be good for young people – and good for democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354499/original/file-20200825-14-1u4w6aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C8%2C2982%2C1917&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent decision to <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12357017">delay</a> the 2020 general election has given <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122471241/about-5000-young-people-now-eligible-to-vote-after-delay-to-2020-election">thousands</a> more New Zealand citizens the opportunity to vote for the first time.</p>
<p>But while it’s wonderful for those who turn 18 between the original election date and the new one, it does shine a spotlight on an ongoing source of inequality among New Zealand citizens: the <a href="https://vote.nz/enrolling/get-ready-to-enrol/are-you-eligible-to-enrol-and-vote/?">voting age</a> of 18 itself.</p>
<p>If these young people are capable of voting on October 17, they were probably capable of voting on September 19. Those four weeks are not going to be the difference between making reasoned or random choices when casting a vote.</p>
<p>The current system disadvantages an already vulnerable and powerless group – the young. Lowering the voting age would address this. And we could start by <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424324/teens-ask-court-to-lower-voting-age-to-16">listening</a> to the young Kiwis who have taken their age discrimination campaign, <a href="https://makeit16.org.nz/">Make it 16</a>, to the High Court.</p>
<p>It’s important to recognise the voting age limit of 18 for what it is – a procedural decision: 18 is a convenient number that happens to coincide with some (but not all) other age limits for the granting of rights in our society.</p>
<p>Procedural decisions aren’t necessarily bad. It might, for example, make sense to limit the ability to gain a <a href="https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/factsheets/45/docs/45-learning-to-drive.pdf">driver’s licence</a> to those 16 years of age or older. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1297774673325744130"}"></div></p>
<p>This isn’t to claim that no-one under 16 could ever be capable of driving. Rather, the age limit of 16 is a reasonable imposition on an activity and can be justified by appeal to the development of certain capacities.</p>
<h2>Age limits are arbitrary</h2>
<p>But voting isn’t like driving. Political participation – of which voting is the prime example – is a human right, and protected as such. Driving is not. So the standard for justifying not letting someone vote is and should be higher than the standard of justification for not letting someone drive.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/populism-from-the-brexit-and-trump-playbooks-enters-the-new-zealand-election-campaign-but-its-a-risky-strategy-144855">Populism from the Brexit and Trump playbooks enters the New Zealand election campaign – but it's a risky strategy</a>
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<p>Why then don’t we let people vote until they are 18?</p>
<p>Some might say younger citizens aren’t capable of voting well and so shouldn’t be entitled to. Maybe under-18s don’t pay enough attention to political news, or maybe they just can’t make political decisions.</p>
<p>This line of reasoning runs into multiple problems. If we really care about people being capable of voting well, then an age limit of 18 doesn’t provide sufficient guidance. Young people don’t receive powers of political reasoning as a magical 18th-birthday gift. In reality, they develop the skills over time and 18 is merely when we recognise them. </p>
<p>So, even if it’s true that some people can’t vote well and therefore shouldn’t vote at all, this line of reasoning begs the question about the voting age. It assumes, wrongly, that 18 is a good place to draw the line.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1297842735978700802"}"></div></p>
<p>That isn’t the only problem. We should and do allow those with severe cognitive disabilities to vote once they are 18, despite many of these people having demonstrably less capacity for political decision-making than teenagers. If capacity to vote matters, it matters for everyone, not just for young people.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-covid-19-crisis-tests-oppositions-as-well-as-governments-ahead-of-new-zealands-election-national-risks-failing-that-test-144415">The COVID-19 crisis tests oppositions as well as governments. Ahead of New Zealand's election, National risks failing that test</a>
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<h2>Voter turnout could improve</h2>
<p>Others may argue that turnout among young voters is low compared to voters in general. They are right – but so what? It isn’t clear to me that participation rates are the most important metric here. But even if we think they are, there is no reason to believe that letting younger citizens vote will cause overall rates to drop.</p>
<p>On the contrary, there is reason to think the opposite. <a href="http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_es/zonas_es/europa/ari88-2018-schmidt-edthofer-voting-16-austria-possible-model-eu">Evidence</a> from Austria, which lowered the voting age to 16 for its 2008 elections, suggests that enfranchising very young voters improves their participation rates.</p>
<p>Importantly for the long-term health of our democracy, once very young voters have voted, they are more likely to continue voting than those who couldn’t until they were 18.</p>
<p>Lowering the voting age may, in fact, benefit turnout. Voting is a habit which, once formed, is harder to break. If 16-year-olds have the desire but not the opportunity to vote, by the time they can, some percentage of them has become disengaged.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/voting-is-an-essential-service-too-new-zealand-cant-be-afraid-to-go-to-the-polls-even-in-lockdown-144349">Voting is an essential service too. New Zealand can't be afraid to go to the polls, even in lockdown</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>Voting young builds the habit</h2>
<p>By contrast, if the development of the desire to vote coincides with the ability, they are more likely to act on that desire in the moment – and to continue voting in future.</p>
<p>This also helps dissolve a further objection, that young people aren’t interested in politics and so are less likely to make good choices. </p>
<p>A legitimate reason for young people not to care about politics is that they can’t participate in the first place. Being able to vote is an incentive for younger people to learn about politics in ways they otherwise might not.</p>
<p>So spare a thought for those who will turn 18 just after October 17, who miss out simply because of when the election falls. We can and should do better – by recognising this inequity and working to change the voting age for 2023.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Munn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Changing the voting age from 18 would allow more young citizens to make voting a habit before they lose interest in politics.Nick Munn, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1042512019-03-26T17:58:42Z2019-03-26T17:58:42ZShould Australia lower the voting age to 16? We asked five experts<p>Voting is a key part of the democratic process. It allows all citizens of a certain age to have a say on matters important to them. Voting in federal elections and referendums is compulsory for every Australian aged 18 and over. </p>
<p>But decisions made by elected governments – especially in areas such as education, health and energy – impact young people too. Legal and political voices <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/voting-age-should-be-lowered-to-16-law-expert-argues-20180711-p4zqvx.html">have long called</a> for Australia to lower the voting age to 16. After all, people under 18 can leave school, get a job, drive a car and pay taxes. So why not vote? </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Electoral_Matters/VotingAge">parliamentary inquiry</a> is currently looking into the issue. In the meantime, we asked five experts their views. Here’s what they said.</p>
<h2>Five out of five experts said yes</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265798/original/file-20190326-36256-f4yfzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265798/original/file-20190326-36256-f4yfzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265798/original/file-20190326-36256-f4yfzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=99&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265798/original/file-20190326-36256-f4yfzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=99&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265798/original/file-20190326-36256-f4yfzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=99&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265798/original/file-20190326-36256-f4yfzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=125&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265798/original/file-20190326-36256-f4yfzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=125&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265798/original/file-20190326-36256-f4yfzm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=125&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p><strong><em>Here are their detailed responses:</em></strong></p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-380" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/380/ce0d64837770537eaafa526411256bbe8729e548/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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<p><em>If you have a “<strong>yes or no</strong>” education question you’d like posed to Five Experts, email your suggestion to: sasha.petrova@theconversation.edu.au</em></p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210303/original/file-20180314-113452-h7un11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210303/original/file-20180314-113452-h7un11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210303/original/file-20180314-113452-h7un11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210303/original/file-20180314-113452-h7un11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210303/original/file-20180314-113452-h7un11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210303/original/file-20180314-113452-h7un11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210303/original/file-20180314-113452-h7un11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Disclosures: Louise Phillips has received competitively awarded funding from The Spencer Foundation, and the Queensland Department of Education, and is a current member of the Early Childhood Australia and the Australian Association for Research in Education.</em></p>
<p><em>Philippa Collin has received funding from a range of government and quasi-government agencies (NHMRC, Australian Research Council, Department for Industry and Innovation, Western Australian Children’s Commissioner, UNICEF) as well as industry (Google, Navitas English) and non-profits (Multicultural Youth Affairs Network NSW and the Foundation for Young Australians). She is a member of the Technology and Well-being Roundtable and the Australian NGO Child Rights Task Force and an expert advisor to the Raising Children Network.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
People under 18 can leave school, get a job, drive a car and pay taxes. Should they be allowed to vote too?Sasha Petrova, Section Editor: EducationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1113272019-02-14T14:12:38Z2019-02-14T14:12:38ZWhy don’t teenagers have a greater say in their future?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257961/original/file-20190208-174861-b3ktuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3450%2C2291&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Speaking out. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/32444411788/sizes/l">350.org/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p><strong>I’m 14 and live in Manchester, UK. I want to know: why do we have no say in our future, from Brexit to having no say in school?</strong></p>
<p><strong>– Anonymous.</strong></p>
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<p><em>This article is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-so-you-know-the-conversation-launches-qanda-for-teenagers-110863">I Need To Know</a>, a Q&A service for teenagers by <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk">The Conversation</a>.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>Thanks for the question! </p>
<p>If you’re thinking you <em>should</em> have a say, I agree with you. Your school would seem fairer if you had a say in how the rules are made (some schools do this by running a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/uk/school_councils/newsid_3043000/3043161.stm">school council</a>). And Brexit probably feels really unfair because you have to live with <a href="https://www.ofoc.co.uk/report">the consequences</a>, even though you didn’t get to vote on it. </p>
<p>I think both your school and the country would be run better if you had a say. As a student, you’re an expert in what it’s like to attend your school. If you had a say, your school could learn from your experience and include your ideas.</p>
<p>So why don’t you have a say? In most democracies, there are actually rules against it. In UK general elections you have to be at least 18 years old to vote, though Scotland and <a href="https://www.bigissue.com/latest/16-year-olds-could-soon-be-able-to-vote-in-welsh-elections/">soon Wales</a> can include people as young as 16 in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/29279384/scottish-referendum-how-first-vote-went-for-1617-year-olds">some votes</a>, and there is <a href="http://www.votesat16.org/">a campaign</a> to change the rules and lower the voting age to 16 for all elections nationwide.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-must-seize-this-chance-to-bring-young-people-into-the-heart-of-british-democracy-62756">We must seize this chance to bring young people into the heart of British democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>Even when there aren’t rules, adults leave young people out in other ways. For example, many local council meetings are at 7pm or 8pm on weekday evenings – that’s very inconvenient for most teenagers, on a school night. At other times, adults let young people have a voice but don’t give them power to change anything. That’s not a proper say.</p>
<p>A lot of young people feel this way. In <a href="http://ukya.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/UKYA-Research-Report-Erasmus.pdf">this report</a> from UK Young Ambassadors and the British Youth Council, only 8% of young people said politicians knew what was important to them. So, I thought a lot about your question, and came up with some advice about how you <em>can</em> have a say.</p>
<h2>Get organised</h2>
<p>Young people can build power by working together. You can start by finding other people who share your interests. This might mean joining a community group, or getting together with friends to form your own. </p>
<p>Decide on what you want to achieve: your big idea. Then break it down into smaller, achievable goals. A good example of this has been in the news lately. Right now, all across the world, <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-young-people-striking-from-school-see-it-for-the-life-threatening-issue-it-is-111159">school pupils are protesting</a> against their governments’ inaction on climate change. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259039/original/file-20190214-1742-3oggc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259039/original/file-20190214-1742-3oggc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259039/original/file-20190214-1742-3oggc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259039/original/file-20190214-1742-3oggc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259039/original/file-20190214-1742-3oggc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259039/original/file-20190214-1742-3oggc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259039/original/file-20190214-1742-3oggc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Greta Thunberg strikes every Friday.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stockholm-sweden-february-08-2019-greta-1307696365?src=yrhBZ6TD5Can3fEohveFYQ-1-0">livoeian/Shutterstock.</a></span>
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<p>But this global movement didn’t start big. It began with just one person: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/01/swedish-15-year-old-cutting-class-to-fight-the-climate-crisis">Greta Thunberg</a>, a 16-year-old from Sweden (she was just 15 when she started striking). You can read <a href="https://www.facebook.com/gretathunbergsweden/posts/767646880269801">her post</a> about how she started organising the strikes on Facebook. </p>
<h2>Learn from others</h2>
<p>There are lots of organisations already up and running, which help young people organise, raise their voices and develop their skills. For example, there are youth councils all over the UK, including in <a href="http://www.manchesteryouthcouncil.co.uk/">Manchester</a>, as well as other youth groups and community organisations such as <a href="https://www.citizensuk.org/">Citizens UK</a>. Write to a local group to see what they can do for you.</p>
<p>You can also get ideas from young people in other places. For example, did you know that in some parts of New York, people as young as 14 get to vote on how money gets spent in their communities? This is called <a href="https://pbnetwork.org.uk/category/themes/young-people/">participatory budgeting</a>, and it gives the whole community a bigger say on how public money gets spent. Maybe your school council or local community could do the same?</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257962/original/file-20190208-174851-1g37b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257962/original/file-20190208-174851-1g37b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257962/original/file-20190208-174851-1g37b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257962/original/file-20190208-174851-1g37b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257962/original/file-20190208-174851-1g37b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257962/original/file-20190208-174851-1g37b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257962/original/file-20190208-174851-1g37b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Students vote during participatory budgeting in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65900513@N06/40725725124/sizes/l">Costa4NY/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<h2>Write to your representative</h2>
<p>Even some of the traditional ways of making your voice heard can be powerful. For instance, you could write to your Member of Parliament (MP). MPs depend on the local people, who they represent in parliament, to tell them about the issues that concern them. MPs can support a cause and might even be able to vote to make a new law in parliament. It’s your MP’s job to listen to you, whatever your age, and you can write to them any time.</p>
<p>The Children’s Society has <a href="https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-you-can-do/campaign-for-change/how-to-lobby-a-decision-maker">a guide to letter writing</a>, and lots of other advice on how to make a petition to show you’ve got lots of support, or how to use art and photography to raise your voice. </p>
<p>Don’t just write one letter: organise others to write, too. Keep a record of when you wrote. You are likely to get a response from your MP, but if it’s not the response you wanted, keep writing. Ask questions like “what information would it take to change your mind on this?” or “how many names would I need on a petition to show you that this needs your support?”. Don’t give up.</p>
<p>Two tips for talking to a politician: show them why your issue is important, and explain what you want them to do and who it will help. Be as specific as you can, and give evidence wherever possible. </p>
<h2>Get creative</h2>
<p>You can express your opinions, share your research or raise awareness of your issues in all sorts of ways. This could be through art, music, social media or some other way. In Manchester, young people who are caught up in the justice system are working to influence reform with grime lyrics <a href="https://www2.mmu.ac.uk/mcys/gmyjup/pyp/">as part of this project</a> by the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies. </p>
<p>Teenage activist Amika George started her work against period poverty on social media, and <a href="https://www.freeperiods.org/facts/">her campaign</a> has already won £1.5m in funds from government to support women who can’t afford the menstrual products they need. </p>
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<p>There are loads of tools which could help you to get a more meaningful say in your school, community or country. Reach out to people you know. Find out their skills and work together. And if there’s something you want to change, do some research. See what other young people have done. </p>
<p>Because when young people get organised, they have the power to make the world a better place – for all of us. </p>
<p>If you’re reading this and you would like some advice about having your say, on an issue that matters to you, or in the place where you live, leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to answer you. You can also find me on Twitter (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/bennosaurus">@bennosaurus</a>).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Bowman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Young people don’t get to vote on the issues of the day, but that doesn’t mean they can’t build power and make their voices heard.Benjamin Bowman, Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1062962018-11-12T10:12:23Z2018-11-12T10:12:23ZPolitical blogs by teenagers promote tolerance, participation and public debate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244796/original/file-20181109-116838-merb3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5590%2C3665&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-teenage-high-school-girl-helping-141889615?src=gZZLdVI6TMECH2Qdv86wRA-1-56">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to being politically active, young people typically have a bad reputation. In democracies such as the United States and the United Kingdom, young voters tend to have low turnout rates – but there are early signs that this is changing.</p>
<p>For example, previous analysis by the US-based Pew Research Center indicates that young voters are, on the whole, <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/06/14/younger-generations-make-up-a-majority-of-the-electorate-but-may-not-be-a-majority-of-voters-this-november/">less likely</a> to vote than older generations were, at their age. But <a href="https://civicyouth.org/young-people-dramatically-increase-their-turnout-31-percent-shape-2018-midterm-elections/">recent analysis</a> by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement indicates that 31% of young voters aged 18 to 29 turned out to vote in the recent US midterm elections – up from 21% in 2014. </p>
<p>And although 18 to 24-year-olds still had a <a href="https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-8060%23fullreport">lower turnout rate</a> than older generations at the UK’s 2017 general election, a higher percentage of young people voted than in any other poll in the previous decade. </p>
<p>But, as more young people are making their voices heard through their votes, it is worth considering the teenagers who don’t yet have that opportunity. If the next generation is to have a greater presence in mainstream politics, then they need opportunities to develop their views, and be heard. My <a href="http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/people/julianne-viola/">PhD research</a> suggests that blogging about politics in school gives teenagers a chance to do just that. </p>
<h2>Excluded and unheard</h2>
<p>For my research, I spoke with 46 young people, aged 14 to 17, in Boston, Massachusetts. Maisie – aged 14 at the time of the study – said, “the younger you are, the less respect you get for your opinions and engagement”. Likewise, Kenai – also aged 14 – said that the adults in his family tell him to “stay out of it [politics] until you can vote”.</p>
<p>With experiences like these, young people are often excluded from politics, and feel unheard. In my research, they expressed a need for a supportive environment to develop their political ideas - and to be heard. </p>
<p>Stephen, aged 14, explained that when he does express his political beliefs aloud to others in any setting, “it feels good to be able to get my own point of view out there” but that, in order to feel heard, he would “need supporters and people who understand my view to support me.”</p>
<h2>Online to opine</h2>
<p>The #NeverAgain movement, started by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-survivors-of-parkland-began-the-never-again-movement">on social media</a> after a shooting at their school, inspired Generation Z to take action on gun control by organising the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives.html">March for Our Lives</a>. Leaders of the movement also organised the <a href="https://marchforourlives.com/tour/">Road to Change</a> tour as an effort to register and rally more young voters to fight against gun violence. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244807/original/file-20181109-35554-1ge7mye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244807/original/file-20181109-35554-1ge7mye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244807/original/file-20181109-35554-1ge7mye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244807/original/file-20181109-35554-1ge7mye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244807/original/file-20181109-35554-1ge7mye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244807/original/file-20181109-35554-1ge7mye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244807/original/file-20181109-35554-1ge7mye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">March for Our Lives, Los Angeles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/los-angeles-march-24-2018-our-1054205105?src=-pIRLxX84hY1r0L4A4O-lw-1-1">Hayk Shalunts/Shutterstock.</a></span>
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<p>So teenagers are already using technology to discuss, organise and participate in politics before they reach voting age. But while social media can provide the opportunity for young people to share their political views, writing political blogs in school gives teenagers support from teachers, as they develop their political beliefs and thoughtfully engage with those of others. </p>
<p>By creating political blogs in school, teenagers can develop more confidence in their beliefs and share them with others in their classroom – and feel heard as a result. The opportunity to blog in school would address what’s known as the “<a href="https://www.issuelab.org/resources/822/822.pdf">audience problem</a>” – the fact that many blogs get few views and responses means that schools ought to find responsive and engaged audiences for students’ blogs by encouraging students to read and comment on each others’ ideas. </p>
<p>When teachers encourage students to write these blogs it also gives students a designated space to explore their political ideas and develop their <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/news-and-media-literacy/what-is-media-literacy-and-why-is-it-important">media literacy</a> – that is, their ability to identify and understand different media and the messages they send. </p>
<p>When teenagers are encouraged to write their own blogs and read blogs by their classmates, they can develop and communicate their perspectives and opinions on political issues with a sense of authority <a href="http://www.civicsurvey.org/sites/default/files/publications/Educating%20Youth%20for%20Online%20Civic%20and%20Political%20Dialogue%3A%20A%20Conceptual%20Framework%20for%20the%20Digital%20Age%20%7C%20Journal%20of%20Digital%20and%20Media%20Literacy.pdf">and ownership</a>, which can help them to feel more comfortable doing so outside of the classroom. </p>
<h2>Learning tolerance</h2>
<p>Blogs can also help teenagers learn the perspectives of others. The online platform <a href="https://www.youthvoices.live/">YouthVoices</a> combines the social networking appeal of social media with an educational aim. Students can share their beliefs through writing and online conversation with others in their schools and elsewhere, and engage with peers who hold different views. </p>
<p>Diana Hess, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education, found through <a href="http://thepoliticalclassroom.com/about.php">her research</a> that talking about political and social issues with people who hold opposing views can foster political tolerance, which can lead to better policy decisions in the future.</p>
<p>When teenagers engage in these discussions with their classmates, they report <a href="https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/ab/dd/abdda62e-6e84-47a4-a043-348d2f2085ae/ccny_grantee_2011_guardian.pdf">positive outcomes</a> including greater engagement in school, greater interest in politics, improved critical thinking skills, and greater likelihood to become politically engaged in the future. </p>
<p>Political blogs by teenagers have the power to enter into and shape public discourse – and, when young people feel heard by the public and elected officials, they get a sense that their voices matter. This can carry into adulthood and inspire young people to <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Participatory+Culture+in+a+Networked+Era%3A+A+Conversation+on+Youth%2C+Learning%2C+Commerce%2C+and+Politics-p-9780745660707">find their voices</a> when they reach the public stage.</p>
<p>In the current divisive political climate, civil discourse is needed now more than ever. The evidence suggests that encouraging teenagers to blog about their political opinions in school could go a long way to help them develop their political views, become better able to engage with and understand those of their peers and lead them to a more active political future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julianne K. Viola does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For teenagers, blogging about politics in school can help them hone their views – and be more tolerant of others’.Julianne K. Viola, Doctoral Candidate, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/935672018-03-22T23:41:26Z2018-03-22T23:41:26ZHow lowering the voting age to 16 could save democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211264/original/file-20180320-80649-dyezoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thousands of high school students across the US walked out of their schools to protest gun violence and to call for changes to gun laws.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Tannen Maury</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Former US president Barack Obama visited New Zealand this week and met with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Both leaders share an interest in youth development and their discussions focused on how to keep <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/353130/ardern-on-obama-we-talked-about-pressing-issues">younger generations engaged and involved</a>.</p>
<p>In the wake of the school shooting in Florida last month, there have been calls in the US to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/opinion/sunday/voting-age-school-shootings.html">lower the voting age to 16</a> to give high school students power to challenge gun laws. In New Zealand, too, the idea of allowing 16-year-olds to vote has again been <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/101837308/childrens-commissioner-calls-for-discussion-on-lowering-voting-age-to-16">mooted by the children’s commissioner</a>, Andrew Becroft. </p>
<p>So, what are the arguments against and for a lower voting age?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/neveragain-do-student-protests-work-history-tells-us-they-can-93002">#NeverAgain: do student protests work? History tells us they can</a>
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<h2>Ongoing opposition to lower voting age</h2>
<p>Becroft argues that a lower voting age could enhance turnout, ingrain the habit of voting, and give young people more rights.</p>
<p>However, his comments have been met by similar responses to those former New Zealand Green MP Sue Bradford received when she initially <a href="https://home.greens.org.nz/press-releases/bradford-launches-bill-lower-voting-age-16">proposed lowering the voting age</a> back in 2007.</p>
<p>Opponents argue that young people lack maturity, life experience and civic knowledge. At 16 and 17, critics say, young people are heavily influenced by adults such as teachers and parents (and therefore subject to coercion), and their ability to vote doesn’t match other responsibilities young people hold as they are still largely dependent economically on adults. </p>
<p>This time, however, New Zealand would not be alone in giving younger people the vote. Sixteen-year-olds in Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, Austria, Nicaragua and Brazil now have voting rights. </p>
<p>In the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, 16- and 17-year-olds seized the opportunity to vote; <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/29279384/scottish-referendum-how-first-vote-went-for-1617-year-olds">75% of their cohort</a> turned out to vote. In the US, high school students are showing their considerable political strength in <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/lower-the-voting-age-to-16/">protesting against gun violence</a> in their schools. </p>
<h2>Inconsistent arguments</h2>
<p>New Zealand has a very inclusive electoral system. It allows people on benefits to vote, despite their lack of economic independence. It also allows those with cognitive disabilities to vote, regardless of the severity of their disability and the degree to which they are influenced by their parents or caregivers. And it allows that members of religious groups are given guidance on how to vote by their religious leaders. </p>
<p>The system ought to be more consistent in applying its reasons for preventing people from voting. If lack of maturity is a reason to stop someone voting, it applies to all who lack maturity. If being heavily influenced by others is a reason to prevent someone from voting, it applies to all who are subject to this sort of influence. </p>
<p>There is an even deeper problem with the objections against a lower voting age. Consider how we treat those aged above 18 and those below 18 when it comes to proving their capacity to vote. </p>
<p>Those over 18 are accepted as voters, and remain so regardless of their actions (short of criminal offences that see them imprisoned and their voting rights removed). Those under 18 are presumed not to have the capacity to vote, and are denied any opportunity to show otherwise. But in neither case are we actually examining whether the individual concerned has the qualities we want in a voter.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/giving-voice-to-the-young-survey-shows-people-want-under-18s-involved-in-politics-83101">Giving voice to the young: survey shows people want under-18s involved in politics</a>
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<p>Young people have perhaps more opportunity than older people to develop these qualities. The younger a person the more time they have to spend in formal education, where they can develop their civic knowledge and recognise the importance of political participation – including voting. </p>
<p>Lowering the voting age to 16 would bring the age of political responsibility <a href="http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/lowering-the-voting-age-to-16-could-help-democracy-in-nz">more in line</a> with the age of criminal responsibility and the age of informed consent for medical procedures. </p>
<p>New Zealand’s current system is willing to hold a 16-year-old responsible for murder, but deny that same 16-year-old the responsibility to cast a vote. This isn’t right. They are either capable of acting both well and badly, or of doing neither. </p>
<h2>Civic education</h2>
<p>In New Zealand, discussions on lower voting ages take place alongside conversations about civic education in schools. Becroft and others recognise that both should go hand in hand. However, this is not a simple premise. </p>
<p>Merely learning more about civics and political processes has not been shown to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1532-7795.00027">lead to greater citizenship participation</a>. The <a href="http://iccs.iea.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/Editor_Group/Downloads/ICCS_2016_International_report.pdf">type of civic learning matters</a>.</p>
<p>A large-scale longitudinal study of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831208316951">more than 4,000 students in the US</a> found that civic learning in which students actually experienced involvement in civic and political issues — and particularly on issues that matter to them – had the greatest long-term impact on future political participation.</p>
<p>This bodes well for New Zealand, as <a href="http://www.tlri.org.nz/tlri-research/research-completed/school-sector/creating-active-citizens-interpreting-implementing">research published last year</a> following a two-year study on social studies students taking social action for their internal assessment credits showed the curriculum is well set up for young people to experience civic engagement.</p>
<p>Encouraging younger voter participation is complex but essential if we want to maintain the health of our democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn E Wood receives funding from the Royal Society Marsden Fund. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Munn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lowering the voting age to 16 would bring the age of political responsibility more in line with the age of criminal responsibility and the age of informed consent for medical procedures.Bronwyn E Wood, Senior Lecturer in Education, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonNick Munn, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/923282018-03-05T11:42:37Z2018-03-05T11:42:37ZWhen can you buy a gun, vote or be sentenced to death? Science suggests US should revise legal age limits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207698/original/file-20180223-108110-1ocl6op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vietnam War protests led to a lower voting age. The Parkland shooting could push similar reevaluations.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-School-Shooting-Florida/7bc83c9e428e469b97d4efd6acea6ac1/1/0">AP Photo/Gerald Herbert</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Societies have long grappled with where to draw the chronological age boundary between adolescence and adulthood. The United States stands apart from most of the world in that it uses different ages for different rights and responsibilities. We permit people to <a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/pubs/hf/pl11028/chapter4.cfm">drive when they are 16</a> (even younger in a few states), but prohibit them from <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/minimum-legal-drinking-age.htm">purchasing alcohol until they are 21</a>. The ages at which adolescents can <a href="https://filmratings.com/Tips">see a risqué movie</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/child-marriage-is-still-legal-in-the-us-88846">choose to marry</a>, enter into contracts, or buy cigarettes generally fall between these two extremes.</p>
<p>Nearly all <a href="http://chartsbin.com/view/545">other countries use one age</a> — <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority">almost always, 18</a> — to distinguish between minors and adults for most legal purposes. This one-age-fits-all regime has the advantages of consistency, clarity and fairness. Once you’re an adult, you’re an adult.</p>
<p>Taking an issue-specific approach permits society to align legal responsibilities and privileges with people’s abilities and needs. It also allows citizens to change our collective mind about particular boundaries when events dictate rethinking them, as was the case when demonstrations over the Vietnam War draft prompted Congress to <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xxvi">lower the voting age from 21 to 18</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/stoneman-douglas-shooting.html">Parkland school shooting</a>, in which 17 high school students and staff were killed by a 19-year-old with a semiautomatic assault rifle, may be another one of these transformative events. The massacre has understandably prompted a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/politics/congress-obstacles-gun-law-control/index.html">national discussion about gun control</a>, but this is not the only policy debate that this tragedy should stimulate.</p>
<p>Three age-related revisions to the law, in particular, deserve careful consideration in the wake of the shooting: increasing the minimum age for purchasing firearms, lowering the voting age and raising the age of eligibility for capital punishment.</p>
<p>As I outline in my book “<a href="http://www.laurencesteinberg.com/books/age-of-opportunity">Age of Opportunity: Lessons From the New Science of Adolescence</a>,” research on <a href="https://www.nature.com/collections/vbmfnrsssw">adolescent psychological and brain development</a> provides a compelling basis for changing our laws.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207696/original/file-20180223-108139-s1xmi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207696/original/file-20180223-108139-s1xmi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207696/original/file-20180223-108139-s1xmi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207696/original/file-20180223-108139-s1xmi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207696/original/file-20180223-108139-s1xmi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207696/original/file-20180223-108139-s1xmi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207696/original/file-20180223-108139-s1xmi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207696/original/file-20180223-108139-s1xmi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Researchers know adolescent brains are still developing, as can be seen during cognitive tasks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nihgov/40268599281">Dr. Richard Watts and ABCD/Univ. of VT P.I. Dr. Hugh Garavan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<h2>Predictable developmental timetables</h2>
<p>In order to understand how the new science of adolescence can inform this discussion, we need to differentiate between “cold” and “hot” cognition. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_967-1">Cold cognition</a> is invoked in quiet situations, when you’re alone and unhurried. Here the most important skills are those measured by standardized tests of basic intellectual abilities, including attention, memory and logical reasoning.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awu177">Hot cognition</a> is what kicks in when you are excited, agitated, in groups, or rushed. Under these circumstances, the most important skill is <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/anger-in-the-age-entitlement/201110/self-regulation">self-control</a>, which enables us to regulate our emotions, resist coercion and think before we act. </p>
<p>For the past 20 years, my colleagues and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fpFXX8EAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I have been studying</a> the developmental timetables of cold and hot cognition. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014763">Our initial research</a> was conducted in the United States, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12532">our most recent study</a> included more than 5,000 people between ages 10 and 30 in 11 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and North and South America. The age trajectories we discovered were the same in our international sample as they were in the United States study.</p>
<p>Our studies show that the abilities necessary to make reasoned decisions are mature by age 16. By this age, adolescents can gather and process information, think logically and draw evidence-based inferences.</p>
<p>Self-regulation does not mature until around age 22, however. Not until this age are people capable of restraining themselves when their emotions are intense, when they are pressured by their peers, or when they feel hurried.</p>
<p>These findings on the development of cold and hot cognition parallel patterns of adolescent brain development. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3509">Neuroimaging studies show</a> that brain systems necessary for cold cognition are mature by mid-adolescence, whereas those that govern self-control are not fully developed until the early 20s.</p>
<h2>Growing into privileges</h2>
<p>Most people would agree that individuals who have trouble controlling their emotions or thinking through the consequences of their acts should not possess deadly weapons. This, after all, is the rationale behind prohibiting those with serious mental illness from purchasing assault rifles and other firearms. (Even the staunchest defenders of Second Amendment rights, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-bipartisan-members-congress-meeting-school-community-safety/">including President Trump</a>, favor placing restrictions on the sale of guns to the mentally ill.)</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"966662241977360384"}"></div></p>
<p>Adolescence is not a mental illness, but it is a time during which many mentally healthy people have difficulty controlling their impulses and regulating their behavior. Based on the science, I <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2018/02/23/gov-scott-announces-major-action-plan-to-keep-florida-students-safe-following-tragic-parkland-shooting/">agree with Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott</a> that people should not be permitted to purchase firearms until they are at least 21, if not older.</p>
<p>Voting, in contrast, is an act for which cold cognitive abilities are sufficient for competence. An election unfolds over months, which diminishes time pressure and permits people to gather facts and weigh them. Although you might discuss your preferences with others, the act of voting is done alone, and you have as much time as you want to deliberate inside a voting booth.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Emma Gonzalez calls out President Trump and the NRA at an anti-gun rally.</span></figcaption>
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<p>It is quite clear from post-Parkland events, during which we have witnessed many examples of <a href="https://qz.com/1212712/florida-shooting-stoneman-douglas-student-quotes-after-the-high-school-attack/">wise, articulate and informed young people</a> discussing gun control, that high school students are able to understand and speak knowledgeably about political issues that affect them. There is no reason why people who have the intellectual skills necessary to vote should be prohibited from doing so.</p>
<p>Teenagers may make bad choices, but they won’t make them any more often than adults do. As I noted in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/opinion/sunday/voting-age-school-shootings.html">recent op-ed in The New York Times</a>, I believe the U.S. ought to lower the voting age to 16, as several countries <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8963-2_4">in Europe</a> and <a href="http://chartsbin.com/view/re6">South America</a> have done.</p>
<h2>A question of juvenile responsibility</h2>
<p>Deciding how to sentence the 19-year-old Parkland attacker, Nikolas Cruz, is certain to be controversial. In its 2005 decision in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-633.ZS.html">Roper v. Simmons</a>, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the juvenile death penalty on the grounds that adolescents are inherently less mature than adults and therefore not deserving of punishments reserved for those who are fully responsible for their crimes.</p>
<p>In 2010 and 2012, in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2009/08-7412">several cases</a> on the constitutionality of <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2011/10-9646">life without parole for juveniles</a> that followed Roper, amicus briefs submitted by scientific organizations <a href="http://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/graham-v-florida-sullivan.pdf">including the American Psychological Association</a> helped persuade the court that its decision in Roper was consistent with research on adolescent brain development.</p>
<p>In the last five years, <a href="http://www.lawneuro.org/files/adol_dev_brief.pdf">neuroscientific evidence has accumulated</a> showing that many of the deficiencies characteristic of the juvenile brain continue to be evident after age 18. It makes sense for courts to consider people to be less than fully responsible for their criminal acts up to the age of 21.</p>
<p>In 2017, I presented this science in <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/files/pdf/KentuckyAge21DecisionEfrainDiaz.pdf">Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Diaz</a>, a case involving a 20-year-old accused of murder. That court agreed that the logic of Roper should apply to people up to age 21, and that the death penalty could not be considered as a possible sentence for Mr. Diaz. The case is now under appeal.</p>
<p>Nikolas Cruz’s public defenders have <a href="https://www.local10.com/news/parkland-school-shooting/prosecutors-push-back-on-talk-of-plea-deal-for-parkland-gunman">offered prosecutors a guilty plea</a> and their willingness to <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-school-shooting-nikolas-cruz-grand-jury-20180228-story.html">accept a life sentence</a> in return for the state’s agreement to not pursue the death penalty. To date, the prosecutors have not announced their intentions. Although given the enormity of Cruz’s crime, there will surely be a public outcry pushing for the death penalty, the science is on the defense’s side.</p>
<p>Research on adolescent brain and psychological development can inform debates about where to draw legal lines between minors and adults. Science is not the only consideration when society contemplates changes in the law. But to the extent that people care to align social policies with current understanding of human development, the science of adolescence can help guide the discussion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurence Steinberg receives funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Klaus J. Jacobs Foundation.</span></em></p>Teens’ brains develop different skills along a predictable timeline. These milestones should influence the legal age boundaries for voting, buying guns and being put to death.Laurence Steinberg, Professor of Psychology, Temple UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/908982018-02-02T11:49:22Z2018-02-02T11:49:22ZVotes for 16-year-olds should be based on wider evidence, not just a need for participation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204448/original/file-20180201-123840-zt1bfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Votes for 16 protest in London, 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-july-3-2016-446643319?src=F9r4DMsKN-DPU9OttuhEVw-1-13">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The announcement that 16 and 17-year-olds in Wales will be given the right to vote in local council elections comes as part of a <a href="http://gov.wales/newsroom/localgovernment/2018/giving-more-people-a-say-in-local-democracy/?lang=en">wider package of proposals</a> to encourage greater participation in Welsh democracy. But this is not an isolated move. The partial lowering is part of an incremental shift towards the introduction of “votes at 16” for all elections in the UK. It is likely that 16 and 17-year-olds will soon be allowed to vote in Welsh Assembly elections too, following the <a href="http://www.assembly.wales/en/newhome/pages/newsitem.aspx?itemid=1797">recommendations of an expert panel</a> in December 2017. </p>
<p>So, if Wales is doing it – and Scotland already <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/16-and-17-year-olds-given-the-vote-in-scotland-on-the-same-day-they-are-banned-from-voting-in-eu-10330223.html">allows 16 and 17-year-olds to vote</a> – then why can’t the UK as a whole lower the voting age? Unfortunately it is not as easy as sending out a few extra ballot papers. </p>
<p>Voting age reform continues to divide opinion <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/31/pmqs-verdict-david-lidington-emily-thornberry-clash-votes-16">in Westminster</a> and <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/opi/surveys/results#/survey/d06733c0-25a7-11e7-939c-aada186fb1ac">among the public</a>. In part, this reflect uncertainties over the implications of “votes at 16” which neither supporters nor opponents of reform have fully addressed. </p>
<p>The proposition that reducing the voting age will, on its own, increase political engagement and promote voting as a lifelong habit is questionable. The 2014 <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/scotland-decides-14-9617">Scottish independence referendum</a> indicated that early enfranchisement <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2018/01/02/beyond-anecdotes-on-lowering-the-voting-age-new-evidence-from-scotland/">had a positive effect</a> on the democratic literacy, engagement and participation of young Scots compared with their peers in the rest of the UK. But the full extent to which it has radically altered democratic behaviour of younger Scottish voters is not yet proven.</p>
<p>Although 75% of enfranchised under-18s voted in the 2014 referendum, this was 10% lower <a href="http://blog.whatscotlandthinks.org/2014/12/many-16-17-year-olds-voted/">than the overall turnout figure</a>. Subsequent Scottish <a href="http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/215006/May-2016-Scottish-Parliament-election-Public-opinion-survey-Boost-16-and-17-year-olds-Data-tables.pdf">parliament</a> and <a href="https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/233675/Scottish-Local-Council-elections-May-2017-Public-opinion-survey-Crosstabs.pdf">local elections</a> have seen this differentiation in turnout persist. The differences in participation in the referendum and subsequent elections suggest voting has not become a habit for a quite a few of those who were aged 16-17 when they voted in 2014 as 18 to 24-year-olds.</p>
<h2>Ready to vote?</h2>
<p>Debates about voting age reform often draw attention to the uncertainty over when someone transitions from being a child to an adult. There is <a href="http://www.themix.org.uk/crime-and-safety/your-rights/what-age-can-i-9102.html">no single age</a> at which a young citizen accumulates all the responsibilities and rights of an adult citizen. Meanwhile <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42732442">new research</a> suggests that adolescence, for some people, can extend from the age of 10 to as old as 24. If 16-year-olds are old enough to vote, then we need to start considering other age thresholds – such as whether a 16-year-old should still be prohibited from serving on a jury, standing as a candidate in an election, driving, or buying an alcoholic drink. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204450/original/file-20180201-123843-v5ybah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204450/original/file-20180201-123843-v5ybah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204450/original/file-20180201-123843-v5ybah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204450/original/file-20180201-123843-v5ybah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204450/original/file-20180201-123843-v5ybah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204450/original/file-20180201-123843-v5ybah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204450/original/file-20180201-123843-v5ybah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Fighting for their future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-july-3-2016-446643277?src=O3jtIeIp_c9SypqpQlAScw-1-4">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>We should also consider how young people are being politically socialised. Citizenship and political education in schools and colleges differs <a href="https://theconversation.com/waless-schools-urgently-need-political-participation-lessons-81503">in each nation</a>. But overall it lacks consistency in quality and availability. Not all young people are offered sufficient opportunities to learn about politics or gain the necessary democratic skills and experiences prior to gaining the right to vote – whatever age they may be.</p>
<p>Previous voting age reductions in the UK show that development of political education tends to <a href="http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/563/">follow rather than precede</a> reform. When it was lowered in 1969 from 21 to 18, it took nearly 30 years to introduce citizenship education in schools and colleges across the UK. In Scotland there has yet to be significant change in the provision of political education in schools.</p>
<p>We should also assess whether the lack of electoral rights for 16 and 17-year-olds in England and Northern Ireland means there is a “<a href="https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/latest-news-and-research/media-centre/press-releases/votes-at-16-uk-government-must-follow-wales-and-scotland-in-backing-fairer-franchise/">glaring constitutional injustice</a>”. While the exclusion of all under-18s from voting in Westminster elections might be an affront to some, the fact that some states accommodate different voting ages for national and local elections is equally as important. A UK-wide conversation on voting age in an increasingly devolved state is overdue. </p>
<h2>Assess the evidence</h2>
<p>Voting age reform is not by itself a panacea to questions of youth democratic disengagement. Debate regarding the extent to which the 2017 UK general election <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-myth-of-the-2017-youthquake-election/">was a “Youthquake”</a> has highlighted that <a href="https://theconversation.com/youthquake-was-real-heres-how-we-know-it-was-more-than-a-myth-90970">participation goes beyond the act of voting</a>. Addressing <a href="https://wiserd.ac.uk/news/youthquake-myth-britains-millennials">the causes of youth political disengagement</a> takes more than a referendum, a change in party leadership, or even a reduction in the voting age. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.democraticaudit.com/2017/11/22/votes-at-16-we-need-a-proper-conversation-about-when-adulthood-begins/">We have long said</a> that the consideration of voting age reform needs to be based on evidence. It cannot be a product of politicised and binary argument. </p>
<p>We are now leading a <a href="https://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2017/december/119kgranttoevaluatewhether16-year-oldsshouldgetthevote/">UK-wide project</a> which will, for the first time, analyse both historical and contemporary evidence in the UK and internationally concerning voting age reform, youth democratic participation, and the rights and responsibilities of youth and adult citizenship. </p>
<p>By adopting an evidence-based approach that draws on the views and experiences of citizens of all ages across the country, we seek to help create policies that encourage all young people to develop a lifelong habit for voting and participating in our democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Mycock receives funding from Leverhulme Trust </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Tonge receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>The UK doesn’t have enough evidence to back votes for 16 and 17-year-olds.Andrew Mycock, Reader in Politics, University of HuddersfieldJonathan Tonge, Professor of Politics, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/881312017-12-12T19:15:45Z2017-12-12T19:15:45ZSchools are not adequately preparing young Australians to participate in our democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198656/original/file-20171211-9386-g1ceyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As young Australians approach voting age they need simple, clear and practical instructions about the mechanics of how government works and how to vote. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s youth are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/12/young-people-are-more-politically-engaged-but-health-is-deteriorating-index">interested in politics</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/young-australians-are-engaged-in-political-issues-but-unsure-how-democracy-works-84360">are passionate about issues</a> but, unless we take note of the latest report into civics and citizenship education, their capacity to participate in democracy and shape society in future may be limited.</p>
<p>Since 2004, the National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship (<a href="https://www.nap.edu.au/nap-sample-assessments/civics-and-citizenship">NAP-CC</a>) has been administered every three years to a national sample of year six and ten students. It’s used to measure students’ level of knowledge about subjects including Australian government, judiciary and democratic processes, and explores their attitudes towards civic participation. </p>
<p>The 2016 NAP-CC report has just been released and the results show some concerning, but familiar, trends.</p>
<p>As with previous assessments, the percentage of Australian students achieving the proficient standard remains low. This is a point on a scale that represents what has been deemed as a challenging but reasonable expectation of student achievement for their year level. </p>
<p>The report shows 55% of year 6 students achieved at or above the standard. </p>
<p>More problematic is the fact the rate of year 10 students attaining this standard was just 38%. This is the lowest result on record.</p>
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<h2>Civics and citizenship is a government priority</h2>
<p>Enhancing young people’s understanding of civics and citizenship has been a priority for <a href="http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf">successive Australian governments</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://v7-5.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/civics-and-citizenship/curriculum/f-10?layout=3#page=3">Australian Curriculum: Civics and Citizenship</a> was developed in 2012/2013 to provide educators with tools to teach students about democracy and civic participation. This curriculum is delivered to students from Year 3 to Year 10. It’s based on the principle that informed and committed citizens will advance a robust democracy and schools play a vital role in preparing young people for the responsibilities of adult citizenship. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/national-curriculum-review-experts-respond-26913">National curriculum review: experts respond</a>
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<p>This latest report into civics and citizenship education is the first opportunity for educators to see how students are performing under the new curriculum, and the results are disappointing. It shows by Year 10, Australian school students don’t possess the fundamentals deemed necessary to become active, informed citizens. </p>
<p>So what else should be done to help prepare our young people to participate in the democratic process?</p>
<h2>What do young people think?</h2>
<p>We have been undertaking research with recent school leavers aged 18 and 19 about their preparedness to participate in the Australian political process.</p>
<p>Many have told us they’re interested in political issues, but are uncertain about how the system works. </p>
<p>They also believe more could’ve been done to address this knowledge deficit while they were in school.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/young-australians-are-engaged-in-political-issues-but-unsure-how-democracy-works-84360">Young Australians are engaged in political issues, but unsure how democracy works</a>
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<p>These high school graduates reported, while they could recall the subject being covered when they were in primary and early secondary school, they did not remember what had been taught. </p>
<p>The young people we spoke to suggested civics and citizenship education be extended through to Year 12. Interestingly, they wanted it to be viewed more as a life skill (similar to drug and alcohol education, for example) and not an academic subject. </p>
<p>They said young people need support when they’re approaching voting age and it would be useful for schools to assist with enrolment and provide basic information about the system of voting. </p>
<p>As one 18-year-old put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The last time that my high school spoke about politics I was in Year 9. I was 14 years old. I’m not voting yet, it’s not relevant to me, I’m not even 16. I can’t even go to the doctors by myself. </p>
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<p>A simple and clear explanation in late high school would help alleviate the feelings of uncertainty first-time voters can experience when they go to cast a vote at the ballot box.</p>
<p>As another 18-year-old said about her peers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So many of my friends said to me, “which box do I tick?” and, “what do you mean I have to go above the line and below the line?”. Basic definitions and terminology is really important.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>The 2016 National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship report tells us by Year 10, a majority of school students have little knowledge about Australian civics and democracy. This is concerning, especially as many students don’t encounter the topic later in high school, yet they will be required to vote when they turn 18.</p>
<p>We need to ensure all young people have the basic skills required to engage in Australia’s political process. As young Australians approach voting age they need simple, clear and practical instructions about the mechanics of how government works and how to vote. </p>
<p>School is the best place to teach this and it should be covered in the senior years. Doing so would help more young people become confident and empowered participants in Australia’s democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88131/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zlatko Skrbis receives funding from The Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Laughland-Booy and Zareh Ghazarian do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Results from the latest report into civics and citizenship education show by the time students hit year ten, the majority of them have little knowledge about Australian civics and democracy.Zareh Ghazarian, Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Monash UniversityJacqueline Laughland-Booy, Research Associate in Sociology, Monash UniversityZlatko Skrbis, Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/831012017-09-10T19:43:21Z2017-09-10T19:43:21ZGiving voice to the young: survey shows people want under-18s involved in politics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184822/original/file-20170906-13729-nc7wrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The default position in social and political theory is to disregard children altogether, or to consider them as learner-citizens.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lucy Hughes Jones</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Young people are largely excluded from consultation and contribution to government decision-making. Both Australia and New Zealand are signatories to the UN <a href="https://www.unicef.org.au/Upload/UNICEF/Media/Our%20work/childfriendlycrc.pdf">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>, and are obliged to honour children’s rights to freely express their views in all matters affecting them.</p>
<p>However, neither country has mandated mechanisms to ensure children’s views are heard within their civic institutions. Western models for citizenship participation have been designed by, and for, adults. The default position in social and political theory is to disregard children altogether, or to consider them as learner-citizens.</p>
<p>To understand what the public thinks about children’s political participation, we commissioned a question to be added to the 2016 <a href="https://www.acspri.org.au/aussa">Australian</a> and <a href="http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/our-research/research-centres-and-archives/compass/surveys.html">New Zealand</a> versions of the <a href="http://www.issp.org/about-issp/">International Social Survey Program</a> (ISSP).</p>
<h2>What does the public think?</h2>
<p>Our question asked: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>How strongly do you agree or disagree with children and youth (three-to-18-year-olds) having opportunities to influence government decisions (for example, inclusion in public consultations and inquiries, city councils’ children’s and youth policies, youth parliamentary representatives, councils, voting)?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Respondents selected their position on a five-point scale ranging from “strongly agree” (one) to “strongly disagree” (five), for four age groups (three-to-five, six-to-ten, 11-to-14, and 15-to-18-year-olds).</p>
<p>There is greater support for political contributions of older children. 71% of Australian and 64% of New Zealand respondents support opportunities for 15-to-18-year-olds to influence government decisions. Despite this, the Australian government <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/government-unsure-if-marriage-survey-will-exclude-100000-voters-allow-16yearolds-to-vote-20170811-gxuag7.html">ensured that</a> 16-to-17-year-olds pre-enrolled to vote were excluded in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-a-no-vote-in-the-marriage-ballot-would-be-a-humiliation-for-turnbull-83002">forthcoming postal survey</a> on marriage equality.</p>
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<p>Research consistently demonstrates that when <a href="http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-publications/every-child-magazine/every-child-index/every-child-vol-18-3-2012/engaging-childrens-voices-free-article/">children</a> and <a href="http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/Outcomes%20poster%20Creating%20active%20citizens%20Wood%20et%20al%202017.pdf">young people</a> have opportunities for active citizenship, they demonstrate a wide range of ways of contributing to their communities. This includes through activities like looking after their local environments, organising public meetings, writing letters, creating petitions and collecting signatures on these, and making submissions to select committees.</p>
<h2>Predictors of support</h2>
<p>The survey data showed that certain traits were predictive of expressing support for children’s ability to influence government decisions. These included gender, education, political party allegiance, and – in the New Zealand data – identifying as Māori.</p>
<p>The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents in the Australian data was too small to identify statistically significant associations.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.issp.org/about-issp/">ISSP</a> asks respondents to identify as either male or female. In both Australia and New Zealand, women are significantly more likely than men to be supportive of children of all ages having opportunities to influence government decisions.</p>
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<p>This finding is to be expected. Political rights were first assumed by men, with women and children excluded. Women’s political rights were granted relatively recently, with children’s rights embedded within <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Women-Children_final.pdf">women’s claims for rights</a>. </p>
<p>Historically, rights and access to education and democratic participation have been closely linked. In our survey, highly-educated respondents were more likely to support 11-to-18-year-olds’ right to influence government decisions.</p>
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<p>It might also have been expected that those who voted for the left-of-centre political parties would be more likely to support the prospect of children having influence in government decision-making. Our data confirm this.</p>
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<p>Different worldviews affect people’s understandings of political processes. In collectivist societies, democratic decision-making is shared more widely within the community.</p>
<p>In the New Zealand data, Māori respondents were much more likely than non-Māori respondents to support the two youngest age groups’ influence (14% versus 4.7% for three-to-five-year-olds, and 16.1% versus 7.6% for six-to-ten-year-olds).</p>
<p>We also explored the predictive power of other factors, including age, income, religious identification, residence in an urban area, nationality, and having children. Generally, their associations with expressing support for children influencing government decisions were not statistically significant.</p>
<p>Exceptions included a lower tendency for older respondents in Australia and New Zealand, as well as high-income respondents in New Zealand, to report supportive views.</p>
<h2>What does this mean?</h2>
<p>Our data indicate there is now significant support within both countries for 15-to-18-year-olds to vote, be consulted in children’s and youth policies, public inquiries, and to be parliamentary and council representatives.</p>
<p>With increasing economic, political and environmental insecurity, there is further impetus for children and young people to participate actively in decisions that <a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/ccc_final_2014.pdf">affect their lives</a>. </p>
<p>And if we take the view that citizenship is a lifelong right and responsibility, support for children’s participation and influence is necessary from birth across all sectors of society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83101/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span> Louise Phillips has received competitively awarded funding from The Spencer Foundation. Louise is a current and an active member of the Early Childhood Australia and the Australian Association for Reseach in Education. The views expressed are of the author and not necessarily of any of these associations or funding bodies.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francisco Perales receives funding from the Australian Research Council as an ARC DECRA Fellow, and as part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Ritchie is an associate with the Child Poverty Action Group, Aotearoa. She is currently co-president of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education. Jenny has previously received research funding from the New Zealand Teaching and Learning Research Initiative, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, and the Spencer Foundation. The views expressed here are not intended to represent those of these organisations.</span></em></p>When children and young people have opportunities for active citizenship, they demonstrate a wide range of ways of contributing to their communities.Louise Phillips, Lecturer, School of Education, The University of QueenslandFrancisco Perales, Senior Research Fellow (Institute for Social Science Research & Life Course Centre) and ARC DECRA Fellow, The University of QueenslandJenny Ritchie, Associate Professor, School of Education, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/500592015-11-02T01:25:47Z2015-11-02T01:25:47ZShorten’s plan to lower the voting age could help increase political engagement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100451/original/image-20151101-16550-hn1h6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bill Shorten said politicians and government must find ways to re-engage a generation of young people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Himbrechts</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Speaking at a NSW Young Labor conference over the weekend, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-31/shorten-calls-for-voting-age-to-be-lowered-to-16/6901464">called for</a> Australia’s voting age to be lowered to 16. In a bid to “tackle the apathy and cynicism of young people towards politics”, Shorten said politicians must find ways to re-engage a generation of citizens who no longer seem interested in government affairs.</p>
<p>Though Liberal MPs <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2015/10/31/bill-shorten-voting-age-l_n_8438176.html">were quick to dismiss</a> Shorten’s announcement as a political gimmick to help Labor win votes, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17457289.2013.872652">recent research</a> shows that lowering the voting age to 16 can positively boost voter turnout.</p>
<p>Researchers discovered that first-time voters who were 16 or 17 were significantly more likely to enrol to vote and participate in elections than first-time voters between the ages of 18 and 20. Such findings are important because they confirm that young people are far from politically disengaged. Not only that, they disprove arguments that assume low electoral participation of 16- and 17-year-olds because of lack of political interest.</p>
<p>In Britain, it has become clear that denying youth a say in matters affecting their lives has left them hostage to a government that seems to care little about the welfare of society’s youngest citizens. As <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jul/22/play-fair-with-young-people-george-osborne-let-16-year-olds-vote">Gareth Evans</a>, an MA student at Sheffield University, put it earlier this year, all this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… serves as a very real, very painful, argument for lowering the voting age to 16.</p>
<p>After all, if a government can hurt the young this much, surely it’s only fair to give them a chance to hit back?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Shorten, it seems, agrees.</p>
<h2>Shorten and ‘uncoupling’</h2>
<p>But with all the media attention so far focused on Shorten’s proposal to lower the voting age, maybe the speech’s most important aspect has actually gone unnoticed.</p>
<p>Speaking about the challenges faced by today’s youth – from the rising cost of education to climate change to housing affordability – Shorten confessed he wasn’t surprised by young people’s decreasing interest in politics. If government ignores the stark realities faced by Australia’s youth, it’s only natural that many will be disgruntled with the system.</p>
<p>Shorten said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You look at these challenges, you weigh them against the daily experience of life, and then you turn on your TV and see a parliament that isn’t shaped by your views or your reality. Perhaps it’s no wonder that our democracy has a participation problem – especially among young people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What Shorten is referring to here is what governance scholars call the problem of <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=b-qsyhzjf0EC&pg=PA231&lpg=PA231&dq=uncoupling+governance&source=bl&ots=HEPSRzUu6D&sig=5CiQadRVHqlT2PCTxUS1aoOBaJ8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAGoVChMIxtLx6a3wyAIVhRymCh3TugBV#v=onepage&q=uncoupling%20governance&f=false">“uncoupling”</a>. This is the growing canyon now separating politics as understood and practiced by political authorities from the political practices of everyday people.</p>
<p>The situation is this: politicians – even where well-intentioned like Shorten – have become accustomed to seeing young people largely from a “civic deficit” perspective. In their eyes, too many young people simply do not care enough about politics to fulfil their democratic duties by voting at important national elections. When this happens, young people not only let themselves down, they also weaken the very fabric of representative democracy.</p>
<p>For their part, many young people express a sense of alienation from their political representatives. What they care most about – social and post-material concerns – rarely rates a mention against the big-ticket issues contested at most national elections.</p>
<p>How young people choose to engage – through campaigns, social movements, online networks – is also <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-tony-abbott-you-cant-dismiss-social-media-as-electronic-graffiti-36819">unjustly condemned</a> as illegitimate political participation. </p>
<p>At its worst, some young people do not see what they understand and practice as politics. Politics, for them, is something largely reserved for political elites in Canberra.</p>
<p>All of this points to a fundamental disconnect – an uncoupling.</p>
<h2>And now for the good news</h2>
<p>The good news is that politicians such as Shorten now seem more aware of this disconnect. They are beginning to realise that Australia’s civic deficit is not simply the fault of an “apathetic” and “cynical” youth. Politicians and government must also be held to account.</p>
<p>Shorten’s solution, for now, is to lower the voting age. But a much more fundamental shift in thinking may be required to overcome the issue of uncoupling. Simply put, politicians must learn to see voting at elections as merely one of many legitimate forms of political participation.</p>
<p>UK-based youth researcher Benjamin Bowman <a href="https://theconversation.com/hate-the-players-love-the-game-why-young-people-arent-voting-40921">recently wrote</a> in The Conversation that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… young people can be voters, but also abstainers, protesters, organisers, union members and ethical buyers. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Politicians interested in more than winning votes would do well to embrace all these as ways of doing politics in the 21st century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is a growing canyon now separating politics as understood and practiced by political authorities from the political practices of everyday people.Mark Chou, Associate Professor of Politics, Australian Catholic UniversityCatherine Hartung, Research Fellow, Deakin UniversityJean-Paul Gagnon, Assistant Professor in Politics, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/409212015-04-30T05:16:23Z2015-04-30T05:16:23ZHate the players, love the game: why young people aren’t voting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79771/original/image-20150429-23367-bmbq86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hanging on his every word.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/50386890@N02/5427442379">EdMiliband</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Labour leader Ed Miliband visited <a href="http://www.russellbrand.com/videos/coming-soon-russell-brand-meets-ed-milliband/">Russell Brand</a> recently, they talked a bit about why young people abstain from voting. In a way, Miliband’s chat with Brand is a snapshot of how Britain has talked about young politics since the 1980s: a politician and a public commentator trying to figure out where the young votes went.</p>
<p>Miliband is right to put young voters on his list of priorities. However, no matter how you feel about abstention as an electoral tactic, commentators who hail a revolution around the corner miss the point. Young people haven’t quit the political system. It is the political system that has failed to give them something to vote for. </p>
<p>Rather than consulting celebrities, political parties would be best advised to put their money where their mouth is: if you want young votes, this is what you have to do.</p>
<h2>Abstention generation</h2>
<p>The 2015 election is a critical one for young people. This generation is facing the worst economic prospects of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21302065">any since World War II</a>. Yet, we still see an enduring rift between young citizens and the political institutions built to serve them. Abstention is a widely discussed symptom of this rift. And while some like to blame apathy, the truth is, young people feel <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/ben-bowman/votes-at-16-is-uk-waking-up-to-our-young-citizens">marginalised</a> from the institutions that run British politics.</p>
<p>Though voter turnout fell in all age groups between 1986 and 1999, a <a href="http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/electoral_commission_pdf_file/0019/16093/youngpplvoting_6597-6188__E__N__S__W__.pdf">generational gap in electoral participation</a> grew. Something changed in the relationship between institutional politics and the children who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79753/original/image-20150429-23384-s2a1u0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79753/original/image-20150429-23384-s2a1u0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79753/original/image-20150429-23384-s2a1u0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79753/original/image-20150429-23384-s2a1u0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79753/original/image-20150429-23384-s2a1u0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79753/original/image-20150429-23384-s2a1u0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79753/original/image-20150429-23384-s2a1u0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79753/original/image-20150429-23384-s2a1u0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Voter turnout.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Bowman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2010, 34% of the UK population abstained from voting, but the proportion was much higher among young people. If abstention was a party, 2010 would have been a landslide victory among the young.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79784/original/image-20150429-6236-l92xje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79784/original/image-20150429-6236-l92xje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79784/original/image-20150429-6236-l92xje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79784/original/image-20150429-6236-l92xje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79784/original/image-20150429-6236-l92xje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79784/original/image-20150429-6236-l92xje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=221&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79784/original/image-20150429-6236-l92xje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=221&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79784/original/image-20150429-6236-l92xje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=221&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">See elections differently - votes vs. abstention for young men and women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The results for those young people who did vote gave the three main parties remarkably close results – with the Liberal Democrats boosted to a great extent by their pledge to oppose any rise in tuition fees.</p>
<h2>The UK is different</h2>
<p>Young people don’t vote, but in the UK, the rupture between young people and institutional politics runs deeper than empty ballot boxes.</p>
<p>In fact, the UK has the largest generational gap of our European neighbours <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/07/19/young-people-are-less-likely-to-vote-than-older-citizens-but-they-are-also-more-diverse-in-how-they-choose-to-participate-in-politics/">across all traditional modes of institutional participation</a>, from protest to petitions. While their fellows in France balance electoral abstention with participation in other traditional ways of doing politics – such as protests or boycotts – young people in the UK are far less involved in any of these.</p>
<p>Young people are interested in politics and believe in elections – but they <a href="http://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/RES-000-22-4450/outputs/Read/5d37104f-4a48-42a3-9bc5-daa64305e872">don’t trust politicians or political parties</a>.</p>
<p>Go into any pub or park you like and ask the first person of any age what they think about politicians, and you are likely to get a negative response. <a href="https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3504/Politicians-trusted-less-than-estate-agents-bankers-and-journalists.aspx">Politics is the least trusted profession in the UK</a>. So there is little to surprise us in on the right side of the chart below, which depicts a selection of the responses to a study of <a href="http://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/research/microsites/epop/papers/Henn_and_Foard_-_Young_People,_Political_Participation_and_Trust_in_Britain.pdf">young people’s perceptions of politics in 2011</a>, following the last General Election.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79781/original/image-20150429-6263-66ifg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79781/original/image-20150429-6263-66ifg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79781/original/image-20150429-6263-66ifg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79781/original/image-20150429-6263-66ifg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79781/original/image-20150429-6263-66ifg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79781/original/image-20150429-6263-66ifg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79781/original/image-20150429-6263-66ifg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79781/original/image-20150429-6263-66ifg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young people, politics and trust.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matt Henn and Nick Foard, Nottingham Trent University, 2011</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But on the left hand side of the chart you will see data that is not often discussed. Young people in the UK tend to profess to researchers that they do have an interest in politics and that they trust elections as an effective way to go about running a country.</p>
<p>Despite Russell Brand’s assertion that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/feb/20/is-russell-brand-right-are-we-disenchanted-by-politics">politics itself is a broken system</a>, young people don’t necessarily agree, even if they don’t vote. They seem to want elections as a democratic principle but distrust the current stock of politicians as custodians of that principle.</p>
<h2>Preaching to the converted?</h2>
<p>This lack of trust in politicians may go some way towards explaining why the hard work and imaginative adverts of the many <a href="http://bitetheballot.co.uk/the-basics/">campaigns for young turnout</a>, which have characterised elections since the 1990s have not made a significant dent in young abstention.</p>
<p>Perhaps young people are already sold on democracy in principle, no matter which celebrity asks them to rock up to the polling station. Maybe they’re waiting for something everyone else wants – something to vote for.</p>
<p>It may not be a coincidence that the last major vote in the UK, the Scottish Independence Referendum, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/scottish-independence/scottish-referendum-results-huge-turnout-bolsters-case-for-voting-at-16-9745081.html">attracted so many young voters</a>. It offered a clear and distinct choice more or less separate from political parties. Yes is Yes and No is No, no matter what colour tie it wears.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the issues that matter most to young people reflect the <a href="http://people.bath.ac.uk/bd203/docs/DiTC_YoungPeoplesPoliticsDuringCrisis_BenBowman_2013.pdf">risky nature of young lives</a> following the global economic crisis.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79757/original/image-20150429-23357-p1oy3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79757/original/image-20150429-23357-p1oy3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79757/original/image-20150429-23357-p1oy3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79757/original/image-20150429-23357-p1oy3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79757/original/image-20150429-23357-p1oy3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79757/original/image-20150429-23357-p1oy3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79757/original/image-20150429-23357-p1oy3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79757/original/image-20150429-23357-p1oy3v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top concerns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Demos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They are <a href="http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Tune_in_-_web.pdf?1419813387">concerned</a> about affording a place to live, finding a job, and having reliable safety nets like the NHS and mental health provision there for when things go wrong.</p>
<h2>Where do we go from here?</h2>
<p>One way to put young people at the centre of politics is to represent them, directly, in political institutions. We may be too late to catch the 2015 election, but by 2020, the UK’s political parties would do well to revise their approach to young people as members. </p>
<p>Historically, political parties have considered young people as a case apart. They are kept in <a href="http://www.democraticaudit.com/?p=6169">youth wings</a>, segregated from the main party, from decision making processes and campaigning.</p>
<p>If they were to welcome young people and make them part of decisions, they might be able to repair the relationship between young people and political institutions after years of <a href="http://www.youthcitizenshipcommission.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/YCC_Final_Report1.pdf">scandal, distrust and division</a>.</p>
<p>They could start by giving them a more representative set of politicians to vote for. The fact that a greater proportion of young women than young men abstained from voting in 2010 might, for instance, tell us that the lack of representation of women in parliament is a factor.</p>
<p>Political parties need to act now to better understand the relationship between young diversities, and their representation in parliament. They need to understand that young people can be voters, but also abstainers, protesters, organisers, union members and ethical buyers, and that all these are ways of doing politics in the 21st century.</p>
<p>Most of all, what young voters want is a place at the main table of politics. They don’t want to rock the vote for the vote’s sake. If we are to rebuild the broken relationship between politics and young constituents, we need to start by putting young people at the centre of politics. Voting is, after all, a tool for representation in the public decision making process. If we want young people to use it, it needs to be effective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40921/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article does not reflect the views of the Research Councils.</span></em></p>Research suggests young people are engaged in politics, they just don’t like the politicians.Benjamin Bowman, PhD candidate in Politics, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/326532014-10-09T05:12:37Z2014-10-09T05:12:37ZWe’re not ready to lower the voting age to 16 yet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/61160/original/97bqbd6d-1412767695.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fixating on the voting age won't fix the system.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock polling station</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The case for lowering the voting age to 16 in the UK would appear to have been strengthened by the resonance of young people in the Scottish referendum. But excitement over this issue masks a deeper problem. Young people are disengaged from politics for <a href="http://www.psa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/PSA%20Beyond%20the%20YCC%20FINAL_0.pdf">many reasons</a>, few of which will be resolved simply by allowing them to tick a box at the polling booth.</p>
<p>During the Scottish referendum, 16 to 18-year-olds were enfranchised for the first time. They showed themselves to be highly engaged with the campaigns, making a positive contribution to the public debate about Scotland’s constitutional future. Scotland’s first minister, Alex Salmond, was so impressed, in fact, that he declared there was <a href="http://news.scotland.gov.uk/Speeches-Briefings/First-Minister-statement-1076.aspx">“not a shred of evidence for arguing that 16 and 17-year-olds should not be allowed to vote”</a>. </p>
<p>And support for lowering the voting age extends beyond Scotland across the rest of the UK, with most political parties, youth organisations, and even some newspapers supporting the proposition. Ed Miliband restated at the Manchester party conference that a Labour government would introduce votes at 16 to allow us to <a href="http://www.labour.org.uk/blog/entry/2014-labour-conference-speech">“hear the voice of young people in our politics”</a>. Only the Conservatives continue to oppose demands to lower the voting age.</p>
<p>But the growing momentum could make reasonable discussion on this issue difficult. It could end up being politically damaging for opponents of votes at 16 to seek to quell the democratic appetite of those young Scots who voted in the referendum and those elsewhere in the UK who looked on with envy. </p>
<p>We need to qualify the perception that lowering the voting age for the Scottish independence referendum was entirely positive. It would have been highly surprising, for a start, if young people had not been engaged in a referendum campaign that dominated Scottish public life so manifestly for over the previous two years.</p>
<p>What’s more, the often febrile and divisive nature of the debate may have actually schooled younger citizens in a form of binary politics that is deeply adversarial and reductive. Some young people may even have been discouraged from engaging in established forms of democratic politics. </p>
<p>Before we talk about lowering the voting age, we need to start offering young citizens more opportunities to acquire political knowledge, skills and experience. Citizenship education is a statutory subject only in England and Northern Ireland and provision across the UK is patchy and inconsistent. In Scotland, only a third of young Scots take a <a href="http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/nationalqualifications/subjects/modernstudies.asp">modern studies</a> course covering history, politics and current affairs.</p>
<p>Young people rarely get experience of representative politics before they vote. School councils often lack influence and cuts to local authorities mean there are fewer youth councils to join. The Welsh Assembly recently cut funding for its national youth parliament, Funky Dragon. The UK government is instead channelling scarce resources into a <a href="http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/">National Citizen Service</a> programme that does not seek to directly enhance political literacy or participation.</p>
<h2>Youth as second-class citizens?</h2>
<p>The potential for votes at 16 to make British political culture more youth-centric and youth-sensitive is also debatable. It may indeed redress some demographic imbalances in the electorate, but it is unlikely to have a dramatic effect on the attitudes and behaviour of most politicians or political parties towards younger voters.</p>
<p>Political parties instinctively understand and represent the interests of older voters and show little sign of changing. The average age of their elected representatives across the UK, from Westminster to local councils, is over 50. Yet no party has sought to introduce all-youth shortlists to increase the number of young people standing for election.</p>
<p>Young people are instead annexed to youth wings, where their policy interests are often compartmentalised or banished to the periphery. No other age groups are treated this way. Scant political capital is invested in addressing the specific interests of young people and the few youth-focused policies pursued are typically developed without consultation. It is not surprising young people have little connection with representative politics. </p>
<p>Proponents of votes at 16 argue that the voting age should match the age at which citizens get other adult rights. If 16 and 17-year-olds can join the army, get married or pay tax, then why shouldn’t they be able to vote? But these rights are not universally realised at the age of 16 and the age of responsibility is increasingly being delayed. The inverse problem is therefore also possible. We could start to see young people being able to vote before they can do other things. They could be free to vote at 16 but still need their parent’s permission to marry or join the armed forces. This would essentially introduce a two-tier citizenship, making young voters feel even more excluded.</p>
<p>Votes at 16 may well arrest the decline in electoral turnouts in the short term, but will not fix the problem of youth disengagement with politics. Parties need to do more to involve young people in the whole political process or they could actually encourage disconnection at an earlier age. Lowering the age of enfranchisement to 16 without discussing its wide-ranging implications could prove a dangerous rather than radical step.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32653/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Mycock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The case for lowering the voting age to 16 in the UK would appear to have been strengthened by the resonance of young people in the Scottish referendum. But excitement over this issue masks a deeper problem…Andrew Mycock, Reader in Politics, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/291932014-07-15T13:16:33Z2014-07-15T13:16:33ZPay attention to Scotland’s voting age debate – it could be heading south<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53811/original/9d95rh2v-1405361660.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Alex Salmond wants this lot to vote not just in the referendum, but every election</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/scottishgovernment/8758125506/in/photolist-ab9ZQW-ab7eEV-dYc7cM-ab9ZYU-ab78Ve-aVjJJk-aVjK38-a7Qgqz-a7Qgd4-c4W7ym-c4W8kh-aVk2D2-hj5mwa-hj4dRo-hj4ivA-hj5k7g-hj5adi-dv6cmt-dv2npc-aQgeCg-aQggsT-aQgcb2-aQg944-aQgbj8-aQgas6-aPHEBn-aPHCNe-aPHCpk-aPHAqF-aPHB3F-aPHCyr-fDGbsj-cEbSch-j36aAG-cZJVa1-dYhRsC-dYc9Na-j3687x-aeaUsD-apa6jE-ajTbTQ-ajTbZj-aRkfV8-aRkPwZ-aRkQNP-ekPUoV-ekVFqU-ekVFzU-ekVFMj-fosU5U">Scottish Government</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Underneath the sound and fury of the Scottish independence referendum, numerous changes to how Scotland goes to election polls have been proposed by the Scottish government – in particular reducing the voting age to 16. Amid all the constitutional debate, the government’s <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/04/7183">consultation</a> passed almost unnoticed when it was published in the spring. There was also mostly silence when it closed for submissions. Yet changes to the rules of the electoral game are always potentially serious. They change the terms on which voters engage with those who would seek to govern and represent them. </p>
<p>The consultation attempted to resolve various issues in Scottish electoral politics which were highlighted after the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/vote2012/council/scotland.stm">2012 Scottish local government elections</a>. These led to <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/04/7183/2">an inquiry</a> in late 2012/early 2013, to which the consultation is a response. </p>
<p>The main concern was that the turnout for the 2012 elections, at 39.8%, was much lower than the 52.1% figure of 2007. <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/18080104/7">The main reason</a> was that the 2007 local elections were held concurrently with those for the Scottish parliament. All the same, a decline in participation was a clear trend in the context of turnout figures that have been well north of 40% for many years (and steadily falling). </p>
<p>In the proposal to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote, the Scottish government is certainly being consistent. Most obviously, the franchise <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-23074572">has already been</a> extended to 16 to 17-year-olds for the 2014 independence referendum. It has also been extended in two lesser sets of elections falling within the competence of the Scottish parliament, those for <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0041/00411358.pdf">pilot health boards</a>, and elections to the <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldselect/ldconst/62/6203.htm">Crofting Commission</a>.</p>
<p>Debates over extending the franchise have been heated, with opinions somewhat entrenched. In reality there is no real reason why 16 to 17-year-olds should, or should not, be given the vote. While they often get a bad press, this age group can also be highly responsible. The consultation paper tries to underline this latter aspect by seeking to increase the political literacy of younger age groups.</p>
<h2>Ye’ll never win anything wi’ kids</h2>
<p>Dividing lines on this issue often revolve around turnout. It is here that the Scottish government’s proposals are potentially contradictory. If there is one thing known about elections, it is that younger age groups vote much less than older age groups. This is a consistent finding in numerous countries and levels of election. Critics argue that extending the vote will just increase the numbers of electors who decide not to cast a vote. Put differently, extend the franchise and turnout will decline faster over time. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53812/original/2z4cr38z-1405362085.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53812/original/2z4cr38z-1405362085.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53812/original/2z4cr38z-1405362085.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53812/original/2z4cr38z-1405362085.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53812/original/2z4cr38z-1405362085.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53812/original/2z4cr38z-1405362085.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53812/original/2z4cr38z-1405362085.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53812/original/2z4cr38z-1405362085.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What do we want, more pizza, when do we want it …</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-202326787/stock-photo-three-young-man-in-fun-hip-hop-poses.html?src=MwhzAYFa1MdYADtYImsYVg-5-29">Solovyova Lyudmyla </a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is difficult to make any evidence-based judgement on this from the Crofting and Health Board elections, since they would have had very low turnouts either way. The independence referendum will not help much either, since it is such a unique event and turnout is likely to be very high (<a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/report-yes-supporters-more-likely-to-turn-out-and-vote-in-indyref.1398944965">predictions</a> have been around 80%).</p>
<p>This matters beyond Scotland. Two of the three main parties at Westminster – Labour and the Liberal Democrats – have publicly stated their support for votes at 16. It can be argued that Scottish practice with the referendum has been driving broader debate on this issue. Yet if 16 and 17-year-olds are to be given the vote, the uncertainties about their effects suggest the proposal be justified on principled terms rather than its potential effects on turnout.</p>
<h2>Techno-teething</h2>
<p>Also with turnout in mind, the consultation contains proposals for piloting alternative forms of voting. These include all-postal voting elections, voting by internet, introducing voting machines and telephone voting. There are a number of difficulties with such approaches that mean any such move requires further careful consultation and piloting. These include difficulties over the secrecy and security of the vote with all of these methods. Another technology-related difficulty is that such methods are notorious for driving up election costs.</p>
<p>At the same time, changing the method of voting is very unlikely to increase turnout on its own. What ultimately matters is giving electors something they feel to be of importance, worth getting out and voting for. Many active local campaigns have demonstrated that parties are willing to fight for every vote, and for good reason. Academic research has consistently shown it is effective in mobilising the vote. </p>
<p>In an era of declining party membership, increasing targeting and direct mail campaigning, this kind of campaigning is difficult and expensive for parties to do. Yet as indicated by the very active campaign for the Scottish independence referendum, with campaigners on most local high streets, it is not impossible. If policy people really wish to increase turnout, whether in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK, they also need to start thinking about how they can encourage political parties to engage directly with voters. Rather than making potentially profound changes to the rules in the wrong direction, this would re-energise the whole political system. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alistair Clark is a Trustee and Executive Member of the Political Studies Association of the UK. He gave evidence to the Scottish parliament review into the 2012 local government elections and submitted a response to the "Scotland's Electoral Future" consultation. </span></em></p>Underneath the sound and fury of the Scottish independence referendum, numerous changes to how Scotland goes to election polls have been proposed by the Scottish government – in particular reducing the…Alistair Clark, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/257932014-05-14T02:36:32Z2014-05-14T02:36:32ZHow young is too young? The case for lowering the voting age<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46960/original/7x2pwht2-1398309022.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One political scientist recently claimed that the evidence isn't strong enough for lowering the voting age in Australia to 16. What are the arguments to the contrary?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pressure is building in democracies around the world to lower the voting age to 16. For national elections, Brazil (in 1988), Austria (2007) and Argentina (2012) have led the way. For local elections, parts of Germany in 1995, the Isle of Man (2006) and Norway (2011) all lowered the minimum age of voting in elections to 16 years old. </p>
<p>In Australia, however, one political scientist has sought to slow the momentum with a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10361146.2013.868402?queryID=%24%7BresultBean.queryID%7D#.U1KzuvldUxA">new analysis</a> of the case for lowering the voting age. ANU political scientist Ian McAllister gained <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/voting-age-debate-hits-australia-20130404-2h8ol.html">media attention</a> recently for his conclusion that the evidence is not strong enough to justify the reform. But is it?</p>
<p>All too often, political scientists engaging in the debate about lowering the voting age see it only in abstract terms. In their analyses voters are ascribed a numerical value corresponding with their age – 16, 18, 21 – without any effort to distinguish the reality of the lives being led by people at these ages.</p>
<h2>The turnout question</h2>
<p>The central claim made by McAllister, for instance, is that electoral turnout fell in most advanced democracies after the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 from the 1970s onwards. This, he implies, is because turnout among 18-20 year olds was lower than older generations, and they brought down the average.</p>
<p>While one cannot dispute that the enfranchisement of 18-20 year olds coincided with declining turnout, it is misleading to suggest a relationship between the two without considering the wide range of other causes. </p>
<p>For instance, economic inequality increased markedly in recent decades in advanced democracies. The effect of this on political participation has received precious little attention from political scientists. Where it has been studied, the <a href="http://www.uva-aias.net/uploaded_files/publications/DP16-Horn.pdf">negative impact of inequality</a> on turnout is clear.</p>
<h2>How young is too young?</h2>
<p>Another common mistake is the assumption that the effect of lowering the voting age to 16 would be the same as lowering it to 18. McAllister admits to assuming that 16-17 year olds are “behaviourally similar” to 18-19 year olds. This is folly: the lives of most 16-17 year olds are markedly different to those aged over 18. 16-17 year olds tend to live with their parents, in a settled community where they have spent much of their lives. </p>
<p>Post-18, by contrast, young people’s lives become far more chaotic. They leave school and may leave home, embark on university or full-time employment, and deal with the range of stresses that accompany adulthood for the first time.</p>
<p>The chart below shows the ages at which people move from one local government jurisdiction to another in England and Wales. The peak time for people to move between areas is 18-19, with almost one-quarter of people doing so.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46743/original/qtbkgmvc-1398048966.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46743/original/qtbkgmvc-1398048966.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46743/original/qtbkgmvc-1398048966.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46743/original/qtbkgmvc-1398048966.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46743/original/qtbkgmvc-1398048966.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46743/original/qtbkgmvc-1398048966.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46743/original/qtbkgmvc-1398048966.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46743/original/qtbkgmvc-1398048966.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage of people moving from one local government area to another in England and Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">UK Office for National Statistics</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People in their late teens and early 20s are living precisely the kinds of lives that make them less likely voters before we even take their age into account; 16 and 17 year olds are not. While this does not mean we should expect 16 and 17 year olds to vote in extraordinarily high numbers, it does suggest it will be easier to engage them in elections.</p>
<h2>Austria and Australia</h2>
<p>For Australia, of course, any attempt to track changes in turnout is rendered irrelevant by compulsory voting. McAllister’s analysis relies on results from the <a href="http://aes.anu.edu.au/">Australian Election Study</a>, a post-election survey, in which people are asked if they would have voted were it not compulsory. </p>
<p>However, it is well-established that post-election surveys <a href="http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/74/1/37.abstract">tend to over-estimate turnout</a>. Asking people what their behaviour might have been in a hypothetical voluntary election introduces all kinds of additional uncertainty.</p>
<p>We can glean much better insight from overseas: for instance in Austria, where we can assess what 16 year olds actually do after being given the vote. Researchers in Austria <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17457289.2013.872652#.U1PmmvldUxB">have shown</a> that in regional elections, first-time voters are more likely to vote at 16-17 than at 18-20, as per the chart below.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46744/original/5r9xddkm-1398049020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46744/original/5r9xddkm-1398049020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46744/original/5r9xddkm-1398049020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46744/original/5r9xddkm-1398049020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46744/original/5r9xddkm-1398049020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46744/original/5r9xddkm-1398049020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46744/original/5r9xddkm-1398049020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46744/original/5r9xddkm-1398049020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage turnout of young voters in Austrian regional elections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zeglovits, Aichholzer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With voting known to be a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17457289.2012.718280#.Uv9sofl_sxA">habitual activity</a>, there is every reason to suspect this will translate into higher overall turnout in the future, notwithstanding the impact of other factors affecting turnout.</p>
<p>We are consistently told by expert opponents of votes at 16, and were told again by McAllister, that the reform is “not a panacea” for the problem of youth disengagement with politics. But the issue about panaceas is that they don’t exist, and nobody really believes they do. No advocates of lowering the voting age think it will automatically transform youth participation in democracy, or that it is the only reform required.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Berry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pressure is building in democracies around the world to lower the voting age to 16. For national elections, Brazil (in 1988), Austria (2007) and Argentina (2012) have led the way. For local elections…Richard Berry, Researcher, Democratic Audit, London School of Economics and Political ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.