Two central issues for
democraciesDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
are the right to candidate, and
suffrageSuffrage is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. It is also called political franchise or simply the franchise. Suffrage may apply to elections, but also extends to initiatives and referendums...
or the franchise—that is, the decision as to who is entitled to vote. For example,
Athenian democracyAthenian democracy was developed in the Greek city-state of Athens, comprising the central city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, around 500 BC. Athens was one of the very first known democracies...
limited the vote to male citizens, while slaves, foreigners, and women of any status were excluded. Requirements and exclusions such as these, along with racial prohibitions, have been common in democracies. The definition of legal personhood has been historically tied up with these questions.
Generally, franchise is restricted on account of one or more of the following:
- age (in all democracies),
- gender,
- nationality,
- race,
- religion,
- wealth,
- birth (e.g., inherited social status),
- education,
- previous crimes, etc.
Most contemporary democracies agree that only age, citizenship and (in some jurisdictions) serious, previously-committed crimes are the only of these restrictions which apply. One prominent exception to this is the limited representation available for denizens of the capital of the United States, Washington, DC (see
District of Columbia voting rightsVoting rights of citizens in the District of Columbia differ from those of United States citizens in each of the 50 states. D.C. residents do not have voting representation in the United States Senate, but D.C. is entitled to three electoral votes for President. In the U.S...
).
A recent example of how the "right to vote" changed over history is New Zealand, which was the first country to give women the right to vote (September 19, 1893), though not the right to be elected. The participation in politics
via both candidacy and suffrage in Europe and the Americas is, largely, a 20th century phenomenon.
Sex equity has been recognized in other ways in other societies, however. The
IroquoisThe Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an indigenous people of North America. In the 16th century or earlier, the Iroquois came together in an association known as the Iroquois League, or the "League of Peace and Power"...
Confederacy gave a strong political role to women perhaps to as far back as its origins in the 12th century, although, as in 19th century New Zealand, this was expressed as support for a specific male, not the right to sit in council. The Iroquois Confederacy, like many
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
societies, recognized rituals to allow post-menopausal or powerful widowed women to assume the role of a man—because of this, it is possible that at some point in its history, the Confederacy permitted a full and formal role to women.
Some limited (to a greater or lesser degree) alternative voting and official appointing systems claim to be democratic. One-party states such as the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
apply a limited form of
disapproval votingDisapproval voting is any voting system that allows many voters to express formal disapproval simultaneously, in a system where they all share some power. Unlike most voting systems, it requires that only negative measures or choices be presented to the voter or representative...
that helps to signal the acceptance of those promoted into new posts. Those who do not receive very high (over 80%) acceptance generally rise no further in rank or position.
Under
perestroikais the Russian term for the political and economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
, shortly before its collapse, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
implemented reforms to allow multiple candidates, all from the local
Communist PartyA political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government. The name originates from the 1848 tract Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels...
, to run against each other. Such methods are not generally viewed as providing an equivalent political expression to the right to replace an entire centralized power group by way of election, as can occur in a multi-party system.
Another means of limited democracy is that practiced in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where the right to run as a candidate is controlled by the religious authorities. Such groups as the
Communist PartyA political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government. The name originates from the 1848 tract Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels...
and the
Green Party of IranThe Green Party of Iran is an Iranian political party based in exile in Quebec, Canada. As a Green Party, it supports the basic worldwide green values, and is one of the Iranian political parties that supports such issues as a secular legal system and gay rights....
are excluded from the slate of candidates. Recent elections in Iran have suffered from very low turnout.
In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
of America, restrictions on the right to vote due to property ownership or lack thereof, and in some places
literacyLiteracy is a concept claimed and defined by a range of different theoretical fields. In everyday terms, "literacy" is typically described as the ability to read and write...
, were common until the
Voting Rights ActThe National Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States. Echoing the language of the 15th Amendment, the Act prohibited states from imposing any "voting qualification...
of 1965. Today all but a few states deny the right to vote to those who have been convicted of a
felonyA felony is a serious crime in the United States and previously other common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
at any point in their past (voting rights are, in some cases, restored
via executive (on the state or federal level) pardon).
In the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
every citizen has the right to participate in the elections of the
European ParliamentThe European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union , it forms the bicameral legislative branch of the Union's institutions and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
. Not every vote is counted equally, however: Voters from bigger countries are significantly underrepresented relative to voters from smaller countries. E.g., a vote from
LuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a small, landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany...
carries 12 times as much weight as does a vote from
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. It should be noted however, that many jurisdictions have similar problems with the distribution of votes per region. In the US, a
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
n vote carries four times the weight of a
MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
vote in the presidential election.
http://www.eleves.ens.fr:8080/home/madore/misc/us-voting.html