Should the voting age be lowered to sixteen? Normative and empirical considerations

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

June 1, 2006

Abstract:

This article is an examination of the issue of whether the age of electoral majority should be lowered to sixteen. We consider and reject several arguments raised by both sides of the voting age debate. The key issue, we claim, is the political maturity of young people. Drawing on empirical data collected in nationally representative surveys, we argue that the weight of such evidence suggests that young people are, to a significant degree, politically less mature than older people, and that the voting age should not be lowered to sixteen.

Published in

Political Studies

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 54 , p.533 -558

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2006.00620.x

ISSN

323217

Subjects

#508772

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