Adults don’t have to be competent to vote, so why not enfranchise young children?

Should the voting age be lowered to six years old? One academic believes so, arguing it would “reinvigorate democracy” and counterbalance the power of older voters. 

David Runciman, a Cambridge politics professor and host of the podcasts Talking Politics and Past Present Future, believes the best way to get democracy moving again after it’s become stuck in a rut is to extend the franchise. 

“People are really terrified of changing the way we do democracy, [but at the same time] people are pissed off with democracy. There is a lot of survey evidence that people are losing confidence in it, particularly young people,” he tells Crikey.