ABSTRACT

This chapter examines reasons for and against excluding children from the vote. The issue of a voting-age restriction raises questions about the meaning and value of political competence, age discrimination, democratic equality, democratic participation and who constitutes the democratic people. Surveying previous scholarship, this chapter defends the following conclusions. First, knowledge about the type of competence demanded by democracy and the competence possessed by children is too fragmented to justify any singular voting age. Second, the regulation of the vote is subject to conflicting demands and no regulatory technique superior to the voting age has so far been established. Third, attempts to justify the inclusion of children by appeal either to the value of democratic participation or the principle of democratic equality are largely inconclusive, whereas arguments in favor of including children grounded in principles of democratic inclusion fare better, despite them being controversial in contemporary democratic theory.