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RE: Questioning Democracy
Jenny,
The
issue of who should and who should not be able to vote is an interesting one.
The philosophical perspective is rather comforting on matters such as these, as
we can sit on the sidelines and pull pretty much any demarcation to pieces. The
line used to be drawn at 21, is now 18, and I see Gordon Brown has just come out
with a proposal to change it to 16. I think 16 is becoming the default age at
which you can do all the adult things e.g. drive a car, vote, smoke, marry, join
the army and buy alcohol. But the point I was making, and will still defend, is
that this may then be consistent, but it is still arbitrary. We require
drivers to pass a test, dentists and teachers to be qualified. We even now
require new citizens to pass a test, so why not make voters pass a test? If a
brain damaged 30 year old can make a cross without understanding the
consequences, but a bright 12 year old who does cannot, then isn't something
wrong ? I realise a test would have practical problems, and a fixed age is easy
to impose and is well accepted, but that doesn't make it logical
......
I
think peers, royalty and criminals were barred from voting as they weren't true
citizens. I agree this historical anomaly has probably lost its relevance,
though I might keep the bar if someone belonged to more than one of the
classifications.
-----Original
Message-----
From: owner-bups-dis@purplepancake.com
[mailto:owner-bups-dis@purplepancake.com]On Behalf Of Jenny
Waddle
Sent: 27 February 2006 11:58
To:
BUPS-DIS@bups.org
Subject: RE: Questioning
Democracy
hello
At the end of yor aticle you write about the age restrictons on voting,
and the possiblity of having some kind of test to see whether the individual
knows enough about politics and the government to be able to vote. Although I
agree that the voting age should be lowered, I disagree with the idea that
only people with the right knowledge should vote. There are many ignorant
people in the world, there are many people who are probably wrong in their
views, and there are certainly many that disagree with each other. Including
the ignorant, we need to let all of these different individuals to vote,
because they are the ones living in the society, and most probably living in
the core of a community, i.e. not the higher classed MP's etc. The reason why
people don't vote is because they thin there are not listened to anyway, that
there is not point, having some test would only create a certain type of
person that voted, and consequently laws would not represent the majority.
I would futher more suggest that criminals should also be able to vote.
The prison system doesn't work, and criminals probaby know a lot more about
crime, the prison stystem and poor living conditions, and therefore should
certainly be able to express there views.
Please reply and tell what you think
cheers - Jenny Waddle