2. Consequences of Lowering the Voting Age to 16: Lessons from Comparative Research

Two quasi-mechanical forces push in different directions when we consider consequences of lowering the voting age to 16. On the one hand, lowering the voting age would provide votes to young adults still in school and living in their parental homes. These circumstances should (theory tells us) boost the turnout of those individuals not only at their first election but throughout their ensuing lifetimes. Considering that the previous such reform (lowering the voting age to 18) had the opposite consequences (as this chapter explains), finding a way to undo the deleterious consequences of that reform has a high priority in the minds of many, and Votes at 16 might just do the trick. On the other hand, are sixteen-year-olds mature enough to understand the consequences of their party choices? Or might they rather simply vote more-or-less at random, adding to the volatility of election outcomes that has already been growing apace in recent years? This chapter uses empirical evidence from historic cases in an attempt to evaluate these possibly countervailing effects.