The Minister of Justice, Tuija Brax (green) has stated that she would support a sinking of the voting age (currently 18 ) to allow all those aged 16 years and above to vote. Minister Brax said she thinks this would increase the engagement of younger voters in political matters earlier. Members of other political parties, including some Swedish peoples’ party (Sfp) members and Left Alliance members have also stated this in the past.
Personally, I don’t have particularly strong feelings either in support or opposition to this. I suppose the arguments against a sinking of the voting age would be that younger people tend to be immature and thus could perhaps not be capable of making an informed decision on who to vote for – or that they haven’t grown up enough yet to sufficiently understand their own views. Personally, through having 2 children (and from more or less remembering being one myself!), I think such an attitude is rather pompous and underestimates many 16- and 17-year olds. Frankly, I think there’s probably a lot of people well over 18 who are still rather less mature then many 16- and 17-year olds; in other words, there are people who probably don’t make particularly informed choices long after they celebrate their 18th year.
The only really strong reason to keep things at 18 that I can think of is that 18 is the age of becoming an adult – it’s a marker point for many other things, whether it be drinking, smoking, driving etc. For simple reasons of being uniform and neat and tidy, keeping it at 18 is attractive. Also, you could argue that all the electorate ought to be 18 as they are in theory electing people who will make decisions on things like drinking, smoking, driving. You could, at a stretch, argue that people who are less than 18 shouldn’t be voting to influence decisions on things that the law doesn’t consider them mature enough to engage in yet.
We will see what happens. Certainly, anything that would engage younger people in the political process is worth investigating. As I’ve previously written, I have a lot of time for Tuija Brax. She comes across to me as a very capable member of our government and seems to have a good record in her decision making. Therefore, perhaps her instinct on this matter is also correct.
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Sunday 4.5.08 at 22:20
Eastern Promise
Yeah, I bet she does. I bet a lot of younger people are more likely to vote Green too. Young and save the planet. It sort of goes together, so I’m sure 16 year old votes would do her party no harm at all.
Monday 5.5.08 at 14:11
Jonas
That’s a good point. I suspect you are right, the Greens probably would get a higher proportion of the vote amongst the young than the entire electorate as a whole. However, I guess that’s democracy.
Wednesday 25.1.12 at 15:21
Karlo
Hi guys a few years late but better late than never. I suppose you guys are right to a certain extent. However, If you look at what happened in Austria ( the first European country to reduce the voting age to 16), the far right parties did very well amongst younger cohorts and especially first time voters when compared to other all other parties, not just the greens helping to improve their support dramatically. Nevertheless, it would be silly to suggest that this was the only factor which helped improve their vote.
Thursday 26.1.12 at 14:29
Jonas
Hi Karlo, thanks for your comment.
I suspect you are right that we should be cautious. Indeed, in the recent shadow presidential election for school pupils, Sauli Niinistö and Timo Soini (populist True Finns leader) got the highest number of votes. Rather surprising, but reflects what you say occurred in Austria. Quite a contrast to the results of the real first round where the Greens’ Pekka Haavisto was the runner up to Niinistö and is thus in the second round with him.