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Germany considers giving kids the vote
The Straights Times ^ | Nov 6 2003 | Reuters

Posted on 11/05/2003 3:07:35 PM PST by Tac12

Germany considers giving kids the vote

MPs want voting right for children to counter-balance a fast ageing electorate that is resisting cuts to welfare benefits

BERLIN - The one-man-one-vote system could be modified in Germany to give parents an additional vote for their children if some leading German MPs have their way.

The proposal to give parents a proxy vote for their children to counter the rising power of the elderly lobby is similar to an idea mooted by Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew in the early 1990s, but which was never taken up.

Concerned that politicians would be increasingly beholden to the demands of the rapidly swelling ranks of the retired, some Germans have taken the idea of universal suffrage to its logical conclusion.

They want children to have the right to vote to counter-balance the fast ageing electorate that is resisting cuts to generous benefits.

Forty-seven MPs are supporting a cross-party motion that calls for the right to vote from birth.

The motion asks the government to amend the Constitution so that parents get a proxy vote for each child under 18.

'A fifth of the population is excluded from elections,' said Mr Klaus Haupt, a 60-year-old grandfather of two from the opposition Free Democrats, who is driving the initiative.

'Two hundred years ago nobody could imagine that every male citizen would be able to vote and 100 years ago people couldn't imagine that every woman should vote. Now they can't imagine that everybody should vote from birth.'

The initiative has won influential supporters, including Social Democrat parliamentary Speaker Wolfgang Thierse, his Greens deputy Antje Vollmer, former Christian Democrat president Roman Herzog and Family Minister Renate Schmidt.

Mr Michael Kruse, deputy head of the German Children's Charity, supports the initiative but wants youngsters to vote themselves, saying a proxy vote is likely to provoke conflict in families.

'Politicians will only take children seriously if they know they could be voted out by them,' he said.

The Federal Statistics Office estimates that by 2030, more than a third of the population will be over 60, up from about a quarter now.

By the next general election in 2006, political analysts predict 60 per cent of voters will be over 50.

As post-war baby boomers retire en masse in the coming decade, pension, health and other welfare costs are set to spiral further out of control.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has staked his political future on reforming the munificent German welfare state, proposing cuts to health and unemployment benefits. But the measures face tough resistance and his Social Democrats have slumped in polls.

Although Mr Schroeder shied away from proposals to raise the pension age to 67 from 65, he announced a pensions freeze for next year, prompting organisations representing the retired to threaten to punish his centre-left government in 2006.

A poll by NFO-Infratest for Der Spiegel magazine showed 79 per cent thought the decision would have a great or very great influence on the voting preferences of the 20 million retired.

'How can any reforms be pushed through against pensioners? Children are second-class citizens,' said Mr Kurt-Peter Merk, a lawyer who is representing eight minors in a constitutional challenge to the exclusion of children from the vote.

'We only worry about preserving the high quality of life of our pensioners while many children suffer poverty,' he said. --


TOPICS: Germany; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: votesystem
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1 posted on 11/05/2003 3:07:37 PM PST by Tac12
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To: Tac12
3/5 extra vote per child?
2 posted on 11/05/2003 3:09:06 PM PST by Boston Capitalist
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To: Boston Capitalist
Why 3/5th?
3 posted on 11/05/2003 3:10:04 PM PST by Tac12
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To: Tac12
Old Jim Crowe law pertaining to persons of colour.
4 posted on 11/05/2003 3:12:50 PM PST by scan59 (CNN Lies (and is passing away because of it))
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To: Tac12
It's ridiculous, yet I can almost see their reasoning behind a "proxy" vote for one's children... (not for allowing children to vote directly of course)---seeing as how those children will also end up working to support all those retirees...
5 posted on 11/05/2003 3:13:23 PM PST by stands2reason (REWARD! Tagline missing since 10/21. Pithy, clever. Last seen in Chat. Sentimental value.)
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To: stands2reason
Ain't socialism wonderful?
6 posted on 11/05/2003 3:17:30 PM PST by w1andsodidwe (recycling is a waste of time for hardworking taxpayers, hire the homeless to sort garbage)
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To: Tac12
'Politicians will only take children seriously if they know they could be voted out by them,' he said.

ROTFLMAO!!!
7 posted on 11/05/2003 3:19:22 PM PST by LittleJoe
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To: Tac12
Allowing youngins to somehow counter the moral bankruptcy of their elders--I like this idea.
8 posted on 11/05/2003 3:22:14 PM PST by Sandy
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To: Tac12
Makes sense.

And after all, they have so few children anyway.

9 posted on 11/05/2003 3:23:33 PM PST by The Iguana
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To: Tac12
Could Hillary be the consultant on this project? Didn't she support a child's right to vote and to sue parents?
10 posted on 11/05/2003 3:25:36 PM PST by OESY
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To: Tac12
Bujeebus, I thought this was from the Onion!

What happens when one parent wants their kids vote to go one way and the other the other way?

Imagine custody battles!
11 posted on 11/05/2003 3:28:02 PM PST by RWR8189
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To: Tac12
Hard to imagine one's parents voting one's vote correctly. Parents are not hip.
12 posted on 11/05/2003 3:28:05 PM PST by RightWhale (Close your tag lines)
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To: stands2reason
seeing as how those children will also end up working to support all those retirees

Exactly. Heck, people who live off of taxpayers shouldn't even be allowed to vote, imo.

13 posted on 11/05/2003 3:29:53 PM PST by Sandy
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To: Sandy
Allowing youngins to somehow counter the moral bankruptcy of their elders--I like this idea.

Actually, upon my reading I didn't see where the child would be able to vote. It would be the parent getting extra votes. This is at least better than the three fifths thing we had going in the US.

14 posted on 11/05/2003 3:32:38 PM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: Tac12
Lunatics have nothing to blame but socialism itself.
15 posted on 11/05/2003 3:35:04 PM PST by jwalsh07
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To: Tac12
How could child voters possibly do worse than Germany's adult voters? I say, go for it! And then try giving the animals in the German zoos the vote, too. In fact, let them run for public office. I doubt anyone could tell the difference.
16 posted on 11/05/2003 3:35:08 PM PST by Bonaparte
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To: The Iguana
"And after all, they have so few children anyway."

Except for the muslims living in Germany. :-)

Shhhhh, let them pass this law.

17 posted on 11/05/2003 3:38:22 PM PST by Bonaparte
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To: Tac12
Hold muh sauerkraut alert.

Leni

18 posted on 11/05/2003 3:39:00 PM PST by MinuteGal
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To: Boston Capitalist
Well, it's certainly a "pro-family" legislation, giving families a lot more weight in decision making in the country than other folk.

But then you're setting up a precedence for any other group who thinks they are under-represented to ask for more vote weight. Could get messy.

19 posted on 11/05/2003 3:40:14 PM PST by Bob Mc
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To: Tac12
I find this extremely laughable.

When I lived there my family and I would eat at restaurants and bring our 2.5 year old daughter. Many of my husbands co-workers and a couple of my neighbors told me this was highly unusual behaviour because children are not usually brought to restaurants, they should be left at home with a sitter or grandma or something.

Going to a restaurant is a no no. Voting is A-ok. Very odd country.

20 posted on 11/05/2003 3:44:16 PM PST by riri
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