Why Children and Youth Should Have the Right to Vote

An Argument for Proxy-Claim Suffrage

Abstract

This article examines recent debates about extending the right to vote to children and youth under the age of 18. It uses postmodern political theory to argue that concerns about children’s insufficient capabilities and potential to harm themselves and others are unfounded, and that, except in the earliest years, the right to vote for minors would promote the full and just functioning of democracies.