Whether you are interested in politics or not, you should know that your most valuable privilege is voting.

Everyone likes to have a say in every ongoing matter which affects their lives. Recently, younger people’s votes have been debated, and in keeping with the idea that everyone ought to have their say, I will now put forward my motivations for believing that younger people should be allowed to vote.

1: Civilization Advance

If the underaged were given the right to vote, they would be endowed with a direct influence on the political matters shaping their country and their future. This would then guarantee true democracy; young people would actually feel part of the decisions made by their elected leaders. This has the potential to make democracy more efficient; people can learn from an earlier age to critically analyse political matters and therefore have a true opinion to state as they grow older and vote in subsequent elections.

2: It is Your Future

Underaged people are those who feel the effects of political decisions taken when they were not able to vote, and quite often, older generations vote with very different views to those held by young people. Environmental concerns are a perfect example for showing very different views; in general, older generations may struggle to think of a society which has the environment, rather than the economy, as its central focus. younger people have a clearer idea of the world which lies ahead of us all, and have a more adaptable approach to politics which may allow the views of the wider world to shift towards saving the planet.

3: Modernization is Needed

If young people had the right to vote, candidates promising to modernise the systems and governments of the world would have a higher chance of winning power, bringing changes that may, in many cases, have been needed for a long time. Feminism is a powerful example: aged politicians use feminism as a form of populism to win more votes. Regardless, many do not actually believe in the ideas supported by feminism. For politicians to make real change, they need to thoroughly believe in the policies they stand for, or step down to allow new views and opinions to take to the spotlight.

The Only Condition: The Elderly Should still Vote

I know it may be exciting to consider that young people may soon be taking the lead, but we must remember that wisdom is the most valuable thing the elderly can give us. Wisdom comes from experience, and that is one thing which cannot be disputed when the old are compared to the young. We should therefore balance the strong, innovative and new thoughts of the young with the boring yet wise and vital thoughts of the elderly to have institutions and systems moving towards modernization at the correct pace, because sometimes rushing can cause disasters.

Voting, and more generally democracy, is an ambiguous topic. Sometimes it is difficult to believe in democracy due to the lack of interest and participation of the voters, and it is sometimes difficult to accept someone with very different ideas. However, as Winston Churchill once said, “democracy is the worst from of government except for all the others,” thus through specific developments in society, respectable democracy can be reached and civilization could once again thrive.