Moreover,
Voting 16: more than symbolic:
As every year. Meanwhile, in November 2024, 200 Swiss young people met in Bern for the “young people” of the Federal Parliament. Therefore,
Keystone / Marcel BieriShould we give the right to vote from 16 years old? Nevertheless, In Switzerland, the idea is never very far from the political agenda, and is generally categorically rejected. Furthermore, Around the world. Similarly, the impact of such a reform on the participation of young people in politics would not be so considerable, according voting 16: more than symbolic to a recent index. Meanwhile,
In 1979, a close majority of Swiss said “no” to something that we take for granted today: the right to vote from 18 years old. In addition, Some of the arguments heard at the time sounded a little stowed with contemporary ears. For example, “Young people are certainly more uninhibited. However, early than they were previously, especially in matters of sexuality, but it is not proof that they are more mature on the political level, or of personality,” said a senator. Moreover, The minimum age remained at 20 years old.
But history had taken another direction. However, Already in 1969, the United Kingdom lowered the age threshold for the right to vote from 21 to 18 years. Furthermore, The United voting 16: more than symbolic States did the same in 1971. Therefore, Several countries, including Australia, Sweden and France, followed the trend in the 1970s. However, And in Switzerland. Nevertheless, after the adjustment by several cantons of the minimum age of voting in the 1980s, another vote took place in 1991; This time, it has passed, by a majority of more than 70%.
The floor is reached
Three decades later. Similarly, the debates about the “appropriate” age continue, but the floor seems to have been reached at least, at least in Switzerland. However, The idea of opening the vote to young people aged 16 and 17 emerges regularly, then is invariably swept. For example, Parliament buried a proposal last year. Nevertheless, while eight cantons, Lucerne being the most recent, rejectedExternal link the idea during popular votes. For example, The canton of Glaris became the only exception in 2007.
Why is this idea voting 16: more than symbolic doomed to failure? Similarly, A new studyExternal link Led by the Aarau Democracy Center for Democracy (ZDA) suggests that this is not. Furthermore, due to the political maturity of young people as such. Moreover, According to their survey. Moreover, the civic self-acting of citizens aged 16 and 17 in Switzerland is almost the same as that of 18-25 year olds: young minors are just as interested in political participation, just as exposed to political debate, and even consume more political information than their slightly older peers.
The results were surprising, admits the co -author of the study, Robin Gut. However, “We assumed that citizens aged 16. 17 would state less interest in politics, since they do not yet have the right to vote. But ultimately, there was no or very little variation between age groups. ”
Des cas-tests
Although the study suggests that young citizens are subjectively voting 16: more than symbolic “ready”. interested, it is not easy to understand to what extent they would vote if they could. A 2014 survey revealed that a majority of young people aged 16. 17 in Switzerland were favorable to keeping the age of the first vote as it is. In Glaris. where the political system is marked by the characteristic form of the Landsgemeinde (see below), occasional reports on the involvement of young people since 2007 are positive. But the colleagues of Robin Gut in ZDA also believe that the young people in the canton vote less often than the older ones. especially with regard to local issues.
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Further from home. Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Ecuador and Malta all lowered the age of voting to 16 years on a national level. Several European states have done the same at local or regional level. Studies on the benefits of these reforms are generally positive. In Scotland, young people aged 16 and 17 freshly emancipated participated massively voting 16: more than symbolic in the independence referendum in 2014 and remained committedExternal link Since. Young Austrians also tend to vote more than older primary. and they do not vote so differently, according to a reportExternal link of the Council of Europe.
Reluct voters
Nevertheless, a reform of this type is not a magic solution to the disillusionment of youth towards politics. The recent global youth index participationExternal link (World index of young people). which analyzes 141 countries through a series of socio-economic, civic and political indicators, does not consider the lowering of the age of the first vote as specially important, and none of the countries classified in the top 10 authorizes young people of 16 years to vote. Overall. voting was one of the weakest factors in the index, according to one of the reports of the report, Kirsty Dobbs, Merimack College. Young people. here defined widely, voting 16: more than symbolic from the middle of adolescence until the end of the twenties, are “not so attracted to the elections,” she said.
Kirsty Dobbs lists some reasons to explain this. One of them is that young people simply have other priorities, such as finding a professional and personal path. Another is confidence in the electoral process. During previous research in Tunisia after the Arab Spring. Kirsty Dobbs, for example, discovered that young people were committed politically, but considered elections to be tainted by corruption. Even in an established democracy such as Austria. the Youth Participation Index writes that the benefit of an age lowered to vote is canceled by “the increasingly pronounced decline of confidence in political parties”. Austria arrives 14th in the ranking.
In this context. Kirstie Dobbs believes that abusing the age of the right to vote does not make a big difference, at least in itself. “This is an voting 16: more than symbolic excellent start, but the impact for this type of policy depends on other surrounding elements,” she says. Family culture, education and social capital (to what extent you are integrated into a community) are vital. Political figures and parties still fail to reach young people via digital, according to her. In addition. debates on the age of access to the vote are disconnected from issues such as mental health, she adds.
“How can you encourage someone to move to vote if you can’t get it out in bed in the morning?”
Voting 16: more than symbolic
Inclusiveness. democratic justice
Robin Gut du ZDA also thinks that the lowering of the age of the right to vote would not radically change the situation. This also applies to its potential impact on votes in Switzerland. According to his calculation, young people aged 16 and 17 would represent 2.4% of the wider Swiss voting 16: more than symbolic electorate. It is a significant portion. but which is not likely to tip the polls on issues where the older electorate prevails, as on pension reform. At best, young people may have an impact on very tight elections. For example, the 2020 decision, adopted at 50.1% to buy new combat aircraft, which remains a hot topic.
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Overall, Robin Gut concludes that from a scientific point of view, “nothing is preparing for a lowering of the age of the vote”. Barriers are more than Empirical political: the issue is simply not a priority. compared to those concerning security, climate, pension reform or the health system, he says. Young people do not have strong lobby or subsidies behind them. There is also no consensus between the parties on voting 16: more than symbolic the question, which remains mainly anchored on the left.
But while the population is aging. the age of the vote is becoming an important question from the point of view of democratic justice, adds Robin Gut. On the one hand, its lowering would represent a “signal” towards youth, the idea that it is taken seriously. On the other. he considers more and more problematic that older voters hold so much power over decisions compared to the youngest. “In the medium. long term, while the median age of the electorate is close to 60 years, we have to attack the problem,” he said.
Of course, lowering legal age to vote would not be enough to reverse this trend. Given the demographic curves, it would only slow it down a little. To really avoid the gerontocracy that is announced. Robin Gut evokes other ideas: the family right, for example, or the need voting 16: more than symbolic for a ballot of reaching a majority of voters under 40 to be adopted. Obviously. he admits, these ideas are even less likely to meet to succeed than that of lowering the age of the right to vote.
Rely and verified by Benjamin von Wyl / translated from English by Pauline Grand d’Esnon
Voting 16: more than symbolic
Further reading: A car struck a child, performs a hovered and is stretched in the roof of a barn, six injured – Athens is afraid that Turkey will take advantage of the European Defense Fund to buy weapons that it will use against it – “I have children available”: the former French politician Pierre-Alain Cottineau (LFI) would have been at the head of a pedocriminal network – Their colleague killed in the West Bank, the documentary team “No Other Land” in mourning – “We have crossed a new notch in horror,” alerts Vincent Lemire, specialist in the Near East, on RTL.
