Lowering the Voting Age to 16: Raising the Interest in Politics?

Abstract

Is it not strange that some youth organisations defend - or at least discuss - to lower the right to vote at 16 in a context where young people do not seem to be interested in politics? For example, in its action programme for 2012-2013, the Belgium Council of Francophone Youth has wished to reflect on the question of the right to vote at 16 and has even proposed to Member States, during the Danish Presidency of the European Union Youth Conference, initiatives to stimulate discussions on this issue. Some political parties defend the idea, like the Parti Québécois in Quebec which adopted the same principle in its programme in January 2012 - a position that some commentators widely described as opportunistic. Yet, do we have to recall that the threshold of 16 years old was adopted in 2007 to all levels in Austria - after much debate, it is true - and in Argentina recently? In some countries, in Germany for example, young people under 16 years old can vote at the local level in some Länder. Nevertheless, it is true that the idea generally seems against current trends or too innovative. However, if the threshold is lowered to 16 years old, it would be possible to capture more the interest in politics of the young people as most of them are still in school. Of course, it would not be enough to give them more political facts and knowledge. Place should be given to active forms of teaching, as election or parliamentary simulation projects to awaken them to important aspects of political life (examples of civic education in Norway or Finland are valuable). Paradoxically, lowering the right to vote at 16 might be a way to reduce the lack of political interest among the youth. The objective of this panel, based on a reflection on the right to vote at 16, aims to introduce various experiences of civic education in school and think globally about the political interests of today’s youth.

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