Should young people be allowed to vote?
Throughout history, human societies have become more and more democratic, with the advocacy of more and more people having the right to vote, and having those votes be equal for all people. From the days of absolute monarchs and feudal overlords, to “democracies” where only men of status could vote, to our current republics where all adults have the same powers (at least in theory), humanity has followed a general trend of opening up the power to vote to more and more people. Following this trend, British politics has seen a recent uptick in the number of people calling for the voting age to be lowered. But is this new shift finally too much - or is it a further correction to the long line of political injustices that have plagued civilisation since its birth?
Advocates for youth voting say that to disallow young people’s voices from being heard is undemocratic, a claim which is obviously opposed by the critics of this movement. However, I find it hard to understand the argument of the latter group - is democracy not the fundamental idea that every person has an inherent right to partake in government, regardless of their political beliefs, or indeed their perceived competence by society. Should we exclude youths because the majority of them are “uneducated”, or "unknowledgeable", should we also exclude the working class, for the same reasons. The majority of these people are not scholars of politics or economics, history or philosophy. And yet, we all universally acknowledge their right to vote, because it is simply that. A right. Not a privilege that is to be withheld from certain groups of people on the basis of their supposed ignorance, or disinterest: by that logic, we might bar Nigel Farage from voting!
Furthermore, the argument that young people lack the maturity or knowledge to vote collapses under even minimal scrutiny. Political ignorance is not a trait unique to the young; it is a feature present across all age groups. Many adults vote based on habit, party loyalty, or misinformation, yet their right to participate is never questioned. If competence were truly the criterion for suffrage, democracy itself would cease to function, replaced instead by some form of technocracy or elitism. The fact that we do not demand tests of political understanding from voters is not a flaw of democracy, but one of its defining principles. To single out young people, therefore, is not a defence of democratic integrity, but a selective and inconsistent application of standards.
Additionally, it is worth considering that young people are not merely passive observers of society, but active participants in it. Many of them work, they pay taxes, they receive education shaped by government policy, and they will live the longest with the consequences of today’s political decisions. Issues such as climate change, public debt, and long-term economic planning disproportionately affect the younger generations, yet their ability to influence these decisions is artificially limited. To deny them a vote while expecting them to shoulder these consequences is not only illogical, but profoundly unjust.
Critics may argue that lowering the voting age risks politicising youth or exposing them to manipulation. However, this concern again fails to distinguish young people from the wider electorate. Political manipulation is a universal problem, one that is addressed not by exclusion, but by education and transparency. In fact, granting young people the right to vote could encourage greater political engagement and literacy from an earlier age, fostering a more informed and participatory citizenry in the long term.
In light of these considerations, the push to lower the voting age should not be seen as a reckless departure from democratic norms, but as a continuation of the same moral logic that expanded suffrage in the past. Each step towards broader participation was once controversial, and each was justified with arguments strikingly similar to those used today.
History has consistently judged these objections harshly. If democracy is truly founded on the principle of equal representation, then excluding young people is not a safeguard of the system, but a contradiction of it. The question, then, is not whether young people deserve the vote. It is why, in a supposedly inclusive democracy, they are still denied it at all?