Votes on behalf of children: a legitimate way of giving them a voice in politics?

Wolf, Stephan; Goldschmidt, Nils; Petersen, Thomas Søbirk

doi:10.1007/s10602-015-9190-6

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…One could argue for proportional voting rights, such that the vote of a young child is worth some fraction of a full adult vote, and the fraction increases each cycle until it reaches a full vote at a time corresponding to the current age of majority (Rehfeld, 2011). Another option would be to grant proxy votes to parents or caregivers until such time as children reach the age of majority, thereby enabling their interests to be taken into consideration without burdening the child with the responsibility of voting (Wolf, Goldschmidt, & Petersen, 2015;Wall, 2014). I take it, however, that it is both simpler and more defensible to let children vote once they can competently do so (Munn, 2012b).…”

Section: Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Inclusion as a Means of Generating Justice for Children

Munn

2023

EP&S

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I argue that the position of children can be improved by ensuring them political representation, through inclusion in democratic processes. Embedding children as equal participants in democratic processes is likely to diminish the structural disadvantages to which they are currently subjected within modern democracies. Political and social institutions will have greater incentives to act proactively to support children, and children will have the same ability as other citizens to express their approval or disapproval of public actions undertaken on their behalf. In a global environment still characterised primarily by independent nation states, democracies provide the most fertile ground for the generation of just institutions. Those institutions work best, for the most active participants in the democracy. Children are, in all states, expressly excluded from active political participation, and as such their voices, desires, needs and rights are marginalised. Political inclusion for children is a first step to address this marginalisation.

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Section: Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Inclusion as a Means of Generating Justice for Children

Munn

2023

EP&S

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“…Aoki & Vaithianathan [3] conducted an online survey to determine the attitude of Japanese voters toward the idea of a parents' vote, reporting approval ratings of 68.2% among parents with children under the voting age, 31.5% among parents with children over the voting age, and 44.5% among adults without children. Wolf et al [4] argued that a parents' vote is justifiable, but that its success or failure depends on whether parents use their proxy votes faithfully to reflect their children's preferences, a proposition that needs to be tested empirically. Kamijo et al [5] conducted an online experiment in which parents voted to choose an amount to be donated from their endowment to non-profit organizations whose activities were beneficial to future generations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is, of course, a fundamental difference between the case of children currently living with their families and yet-to-be-born members of future generations: For the children of the current generation, we can readily apply the one-person-one-vote principle to entrust their votes to their parents or legal guardians, while for the unknown and uncountable members of future generations, such a simple prescription is hardly possible. Wolf et al [4] (p. 364) state that "voting rights for children do not give a voice to the not-yet-born. If a society wants to give the interests of non-yet-existing individuals their weight too, other tools are needed."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does Voting Solve the Intergenerational Sustainability Dilemma?

Katsuki

Hizen

2020

Sustainability

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Does voting solve the intergenerational sustainability dilemma? Do voting rules matter when trying to induce people to collectively select a sustainable alternative that leaves more resources for future generations? To answer these questions, we conducted a laboratory experiment using an intergenerational sustainability dilemma game in which players are asked to choose between two alternatives. Choosing the alternative that maximizes the players’ immediate benefit decreases the resources left for subsequent generations. The choice is made by the votes cast within small groups representing successive generations. We compare three voting rules: ordinary voting, whereby each person in the group has one vote; proxy voting, whereby some but not all of the players are given an extra vote to cast on behalf of subsequent generations; and two-ballot voting, whereby all players are given an extra vote. We observe that both proxy voting and two-ballot voting increase the frequency at which the sustainable alternative is selected; however, the frequency of such a choice remains low. This suggests that voting individually is a relatively ineffective way to elicit sustainable choices from successive generations even if the rules of voting are modified.

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“…The purpose of this study is to investigate possible flaws in the proxy-voting system proposed by Demeny in order to provide further insight to current discussions on it. Past research on the proxy-voting scheme has generally focused on its legitimacy [13,14]; however, this study investigates whether it accomplishes the benefits of future generations as intended.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voting on Behalf of a Future Generation: A Laboratory Experiment

et al. 2019

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This paper investigates a new voting rule wherein some people are given extra votes to serve as proxies for future generations. We predict that this voting scheme affects the voting behavior of those who do not receive an extra vote (i.e., single-ballot voters) because they are less likely to become a pivot, while proxy voters are expected to behave in support of the future generation. To test this prediction, we compare three scenarios wherein single-ballot voters would cast a vote: (a) one-voter-one-vote scenario wherein all voters cast only a single ballot; (b) a standard proxy-voting scenario wherein other voters cast two ballots, and the second vote is to cast for the benefit of a future generation; and (c) a non-proxy-voting scenario wherein other voters cast two ballots with no explanation for the second vote. The result shows that single-ballot voters are less inclined to vote for the future-oriented option in (c) than in (a). This indicates the potential drawback of the new voting scheme. However, there is no difference in the single-ballot voters’ decision between (a) and (b), indicating that the explanation of the second ballot as the proxy is important for reducing the intergenerational inequality through this voting reform.

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Votes on behalf of children: a legitimate way of giving them a voice in politics?

Cited by 9 publications

References 15 publications

Political Inclusion as a Means of Generating Justice for Children

Political Inclusion as a Means of Generating Justice for Children

Does Voting Solve the Intergenerational Sustainability Dilemma?

Voting on Behalf of a Future Generation: A Laboratory Experiment

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