Giving 16-year-olds the vote. experiences from Norway

Abstract

This article investigates one of the most profound debates revolving around democratic quality in representative democratic systems and youth participation in politics and society. The debate on suffrage reforms and, more specifically, on lowering the voting age, normally from 18 to 16, is currently high on the agenda in Western countries. The general debate on suffrage reforms is complex. This article identifies four main groups of arguments in what is labelled the European Voting Age Debate, consisting of the legal arguments, the constitutional practice arguments, the democracy arguments and the political maturity arguments. Due to a lack of empirical evidence, the debate is often based on normative, rather than empirical arguments. However, as the first country in the world to do so, Norway conducted a provisional Voting Age Trial in the local end regional elections in 2011, where the voting age was lowered to the age of 16 in 21 carefully selected municipalities. Drawing on numerous reports and studies investigating the trial directly, as well as others parts of the public debate and legal framework influencing the debate on suffrage reforms, the article presents the arguments of the European Voting Age Debate and presents and discusses the main findings and experiences made in Norway in light of the arguments made in the general debate. One important aim is to investigate to what extent the experiences made can say something about whether the voting age should be lowered or not, in Norway specifically, but also with relevance to similar debates in other Western countries.