Democracy Grows Younger: Progress or Problem?

Hello Friends!

The Labour Government has recently announced plans to decrease the voting age from 18 to 16. We invite you to come along to discuss the burning question of Youth Liberation and childhood enfranchisement. The readings we will be basing our discussion around are:

Should children vote?
The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that children have civil and political rights. In addition, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly stated that, as their capacities evolve, children are entitled to higher levels of responsibility, agency, and autonomy in the exercise of their rights. The Committee has also recognized that to empower children to participate in political life, they should be supported by measures to ensure that they are well-informed and prepared to cast their vote.

And:
Youth Liberation
One important thing to always keep in mind is that kids are human beings, just like the rest of us. People do not suddenly become human when they turn a certain age – they are born that way. With this being the case, kids have the inherent human ability to learn, grow, develop and direct their own lives as they see fit, just like anybody else. Kids do not understand everything, kids make mistakes, and kids need help and support but all of this can be said of every human being.

The often unspoken notion that adults are omniscient, infallible and not dependent upon the help and support of others while kids are very much the opposite is a distortion of reality necessary to construct the social hierarchy of adults over kids. This all becomes very apparent if one reflects on how a proposition to systematically dominate people who are physically ill, injured, ignorant, ill informed, or intoxicated (all of which are also temporary conditions) would be universally laughed at and dismissed.

With this being the case, let’s call it like it is – kids are slaves in this society.

Here are some starter questions for 10:

1. How Low Can We Go? Is the limit 16? Could we give 14-year-olds the vote? What about 4-year-olds?
2. What does the right for 16- and 17-year-olds to vote mean for other privileges and responsibilities in society?
3. What does your vote mean, if you do not understand the issues at hand?
4. Is voting even liberation?

As always, we welcome all different voices and critical thoughts and invite you to discuss this topic in an open minded and respectful way.

Photo attribution: “McGill student vote mob 2011” by Adam Scotti, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0