Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Idea alert

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, January 6, 2011 2:05pm - 30 Comments

In a letter to the Economist, Hitotsubashi University professor Reiko Aoki suggests extending the vote to children.

The median age of voters in Japan will reach 65 within the next 15 years. We should seriously consider giving children a vote and having their parents use it on their behalf. Parents with children under 18 would then control 37% of the vote. Why should we give children a right to vote? Because intergenerational income distribution became a contentious public-policy issue with the establishment of public-pension systems. It may seem outrageous to extend the vote to children, but the extension of the franchise to women was also opposed. That historic change was achieved through the democratic process and resulted in a dilution of the voting power of the male-only electorate. Greying populations require such a fundamental democratic change.

Michael Kinsley considers.

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  • Emily

    I agree Japan has a serious problem, but giving parents more than one vote isn't the way to solve it.

    They either need more tech…or they'll have to allow immigration.

  • LdKitchenersOwn

    Do I have to be a biological parent to get the extra votes, or can I adopt someone if I want to vote twice?

    What if my child has a debilitating illness or brain injury that would normally make them incapable of voting? Do I still get two votes? If they're incapable of making a rational decision because of said illness/injury, can I continue to exercise their vote for them even after they turn 18?

    Who gets the extra votes if the parents are killed?

    If the parents get divorced, do the extra votes get split evenly, or does the custodial parent get the votes?

    What happens when non-parents like me realize they've been partially disenfranchised and, having no kids to take care of, start planning the revolution?

    • TimesArrow

      'What happens when non-parents like me realize they've been partially disenfranchised and, having no kids to take care of, start planning the revolution?'

      Make love not war buddy.

      I see potential for a booming new business..how to market…mmm …Adopt a kid [vote] if you care for the future!…or Adopt a kid [vote], you too can share in the future!

      • edeast

        Clone yourself, and be the future.

  • brooster2

    So, instead of the Dippers, we'll have the Diapers; instead of the Libs, we'll have the Bibs; instead of the Cons, we'll have the…the…

    Oh, never mind.

    • McC_

      … bon bons?

      • tobyornotoby

        Dean del Mastro would be happy with Choo Choos

        • McC_

          so would I, but it doesn't rhyme so good.

  • Bill M

    I have for a long time held the belief that if you pays taxes (including CPP and EI) then you should be allowed to vote, regardless of your age.

    • AT1

      Where does that leave unemployed individuals, stay at home parents, etc?

    • Mike T.

      GST?

  • Mike T.

    Children as a whole are probably not much worse than the people who vote now. My problem lies with the proxy mechanism, not the idea.

  • John.K

    Of course, in a few decades the "problem" will go away on its own, as the demographic bulge dies out.

    • Emily

      Japan can't wait that long, plus there may be no one to replace them.

    • Emily

      Again, my comment is not appearing…so I don't know if it is to anyone else.

  • tobyornotoby

    While they're creating supervoters, why not just go for the full Athenian and have a voting class? Or maybe the modern version could be publicly traded votes. Release a finite amount of votes and sell them all to the highest bidder. Could be all kinds of fun with short selling and election derivatives.

    • http://dougsamu.wordpress.com dougrogers

      I see the wealthy, with enough money to buy votes, buying them from the disenfranchised and poor…. So the rich who might want lower taxes would end up supporting the poorest anyway.

      • tobyornotoby

        And we'd have the added bonus of knowing exactly who to blame for the governments we get!

  • Poopypants

    Or, just introduce a maximum age restriction. If old people get upset about it, what are they going to do — beat us up?

  • madeyoulook

    Because intergenerational income distribution became a contentious public-policy issue with the establishment of public-pension systems.

    Right. Adult voters have kids, and STILL these very people have developed the system that siphons the wealth of these future citizens for present consumption.

    If parents specifically could be trusted with the voting-block power to protect the voiceless next generation from this theft, I would give this thought more than a microsecond's consideration.

    Nope. I do not trust these parents to think that way. Too much evidence against it.

  • gottabesaid

    I'm not sure if I agree with this idea, but I sure appreciate some 'thinking outside the box' like this to deal with these kinds of systemic problems. To prosper in the future, we will need to be creative.

  • McC_

    agreed, citizens can barely be trusted with the one vote they have! ;-)

  • Jenn_

    Also agreed. It just encourages the angry white men to impregrnate women so they get more votes.

  • Sigh

    The comparison of extending the franchise to women is a bit of a red herring. When women were enfranchised, they exercised the right to vote themselves; they did not hand it over to someone else to vote as their proxy.

  • 20 Characters/Less

    Al Capone never envisioned this when he exhorted one to "vote early and vote often".

  • DBM

    Giving parents additional votes for their kids would potentially be unconstitutional discrimination on numerous grounds.

  • http://dougsamu.wordpress.com dougrogers

    That is too funny :-)

  • madeyoulook

    Even in jest, Jenn, this was sexist and racist and beneath what I perceive to be your standards.

  • Emily

    Agreed….creativity will be at a premium for the foreseeable future.

  • Jenn_

    Well, thank you for considering me to have high standards, and I shall endeavour to live up to them in future.

    I've been thinking of angry old white men lately because I see it coming over my hubby who is almost to the point of 'hating' everybody except me and his children/family. And I forgot to put "old" in the post. Heh, and after I posted it I thought the post REALLY made no sense, because we were talking about Japan!

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