Would giving 16-year-olds the vote improve democracy or just change the way campaigns are run?
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
As we know, the western world has more middle aged and old people than young people.
This does not only form a problem for the social security system, but also for the young people, who want to lover to voting age to 16 and decide their future on their own. If the voting age would get lowered here in Germany, approximately 1.5 Million new voters would get the right to vote. That would make around 2,5% of Germanys voters. That number seems very low. So I asked myself the question, if lowering the voting age makes a difference, if the elderly who are a majority vote against the interests of the youth?
Long story short, it does make a difference. Democracy was designed over 2500 years ago in Athens. There, the Greeks wanted a voting system, which gives everyone a voice. A right to vote and a right to decide in Politics. And as we know, the Greeks new exactly what they were doing. For more than 2500 years, every person who voted in a democratic country made a difference which in some cases even decided elections by a few hundred votes. For example in the year 2000, when George W.Bush won the state of Florida by a few hundred votes. Those few votes decided about the Presidential Election, and Bush became president by a few hundred votes. There are a lot more examples like these, which show how every vote makes a difference.
Now, some young people might think, that their single vote wont make a difference and that the elderly think that the votes of the 16 to 18 years olds wont make a difference. But as I showed, we shouldn’t underestimate the impact, that the votes of the youth make on democracy, because as we know now, every voice makes a difference.
In the end, it is clear that democratic society’s should never be unsure about the impact, that the votes of the youth make. The 16 to 18 year olds should defenetly be allowed to vote, because they should decide the policy, which will shape their future and most importantly, they simply make a big difference.
Comments (0)