Until the 1970s, the voting age in America was 21. [43] A debate over the reduction to 18 began during World War II, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the military age to 18. [44] President Eisenhower, in his 1954 State of the Union address, called for the inclusion of citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 in the political process. [44] But lawmakers did not act until marches and demonstrations drew attention to the fact that youth enlisted to fight in Vietnam could not vote in most states. [43] 1971Thousands of young Americans die in the Vietnam War, and many Americans argue that if 18-year-olds are old enough to serve in the military, they are old enough to vote. Their efforts culminated in the ratification of the 26th Amendment in 1971, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. Persons under the age of 18 are subject to various laws on labor, contracts, and criminal liability and cannot join the military or serve on a jury without parental consent. [13] [14] [15] [16] Most still live at home and would be influenced by their parents` choice. [17] A Twitter poll conducted by WJLA, ABC News` Washington, DC affiliate, found that only 18 percent support a bill to lower the voting age to 16 in the District of Columbia, compared to 77 percent who oppose it. [41] NBC News` local affiliate conducted a similar online poll, with 83 percent of respondents opposed the law.
[42] In conclusion, our findings show that a central criticism of lowering the voting age to 16 does not apply: there is little evidence that these citizens are less able or motivated to participate effectively in politics. This means that critics of lowering the voting age to 16 need to reconsider their arguments and that there are important reasons to take a closer look at the potential positive effects of such a reform. In the scientific debate, democratic legitimacy encompasses two dimensions: the legitimacy of inputs and outputs (Scharpf, 1999). This paper focuses on the input dimension of democratic legitimacy. The legitimacy of inputs refers to the idea that “political decisions are legitimate if they reflect the `will of the people` – that is, if they can be derived from the genuine preferences of community members” (Scharpf, 1999: 6). The legitimacy of inputs requires motivated, competent citizens engaged in reasoned arguments in collective decision-making processes. Therefore, the legitimacy of submission may be negatively affected by lowering the voting age, if this only serves to extend the right to vote to citizens who are not motivated or able to participate in decision-making in this way. Simply put, the key question is whether citizens under the age of 18 have the ability and motivation to participate effectively in elections.
Austria lowered the voting age to 16 in 2007. According to Markus Wagner, PhD, professor of social sciences at the University of Vienna, and co-authors, studies of subsequent elections show that “the quality of decisions of these [younger] citizens is similar to that of older voters, so that they vote in a way that allows their interests to be equally well represented.” [9] 6. Lowering the voting age will improve the lives of young people. Young people have the right to be heard and to take our interests seriously. However, by disenfranchising young people, society is telling us that we cannot contribute anything valuable to political conversations in our society. It also gives politicians permission to ignore our interests, as people under the age of 18 have no way to hold their representatives to account. However, this is not the case, because maturity has nothing to do with voting age. Nor can intelligence be used as a qualifier. Adults with developmental disabilities will continue to be guaranteed the right to vote under the same conditions as everyone else. In short, there is no concrete reason why 18 is the age at which we are of voting age. Our results prove the critics wrong. Firstly, we do not find that citizens under the age of 18 cannot or do not want to participate effectively in political life.
Second, although voter turnout is relatively low in this group, we find no evidence that this is due to a lack of ability or motivation to participate. Instead, 18- to 21-year-olds tend to be the most problematic group. Finally, we do not find that the voting decisions of citizens under the age of 18 reflect their preferences less well than those of older voters. In summary, lowering the voting age does not appear to have a negative impact on the legitimacy of submission and the quality of democratic decision-making. This means that the possible positive consequences of this reform deserve particular attention and should also be the subject of empirical investigation. 2. Young people are expected to respect the law, but not have a say. People under the age of 18 are expected to comply with adult laws and face consequences for adults if we fail to do so. In each state, it is possible for a case to be transferred from juvenile court to an adult criminal court, and in some states, all crimes committed by 16- and 17-year-olds are automatically transferred. Approximately 250,000 people under the age of 18 are tried, convicted, or imprisoned as adults in the United States each year. This means that not only does our society expect young people to have “good from wrong” and distinguish the consequences of breaking certain laws, but our society also expects us to be able to navigate the adult justice system and mature enough to be sent to adult prisons. It is hypocritical to tell us that we are mature and responsible adults when they commit a crime, but ignorant and naïve when we want to vote.
This is particularly worrying because issues such as environmental degradation, public education policies, long-term public debt, corporal punishment laws and poverty affect young people more than anyone else. Young people may also be more familiar with modern topics related to online privacy and the use of social media. But because young people are underrepresented in politics, the issues that affect us are also underrepresented. Lowering the voting age will also help increase civic engagement among young people. The words spoken in 1971 before the Senate Judiciary Committee in favour of lowering the voting age are as valid then as they are today: 4In Austria, the voting age for the 2007 National Council elections was lowered to 16. Five German Länder have also raised the minimum voting age to 16, and the reform is now officially supported by all major British parties except the Conservatives (votes at 16 in 2008). 1924A new law declares Native Americans to be U.S. citizens. This means they can choose.
Some states are preventing Native Americans from voting anyway. It is always difficult to measure voter turnout from survey questions because of issues of over-reporting, sample selectivity, distortion of social attractiveness, and stimulating effects of pre-election interviews (e.g.