This is an idea that often comes to the fore before large-scale elections such as presidential elections, the right to vote at 16 years old. We talk about it with sociologist Jean Viard, research director at CNRS.
franceinfo: Anne Hidalgo, guest of Presidential Matins on franceinfo earlier this week, made it clear that she, president, would grant the right to vote to 16-year-olds. Is it a proposal that is not very new?
Jean Viard: It is complicated. Personally, I have always hesitated on this subject. I am part of a generation where, in 69, I campaigned for the presidency without having the right to vote. You had to be 21 years old. It was Valéry Giscard d’Estaing who gave the right to vote at 18 years old. But 18 is also the age of the driver’s license. So, it is an age that was considered to be an age of responsibility basically. So that is a real question.
Afterwards, it is clear that the ecological issue is before us. So it particularly concerns the youth. In a way, the older ones, global warming will concern them less. It’s true. After that, at 16, are you fully informed and mobilized about the life of the city? It is really extremely complicated. That’s why I tend to hold back on this idea a bit. But hey, afterwards, it’s an electoral battle.
So we have to say one thing: young people often say: if we start early, they will abstain less. I believe that is not entirely true. Young people, often, they will vote the first time, when you have the right to vote, the first elections, you go there because you are tall, that has a magic side. So often they vote once and then they stop. And the youth participation rate is very low.
I am not convinced. I think it’s the quality of the stake that motivates them, more than indeed the age. But it will be one of the presidential debates because it was launched by Ms. Hidalgo. I don’t think it would change the face of the world. But afterwards, at what age are we an adult? At what age do we have rights and responsibilities? At what age can you go to jail too, which is a real question? Yes, there are all these questions that tie in with each other.
The quality of the stake, you say, and Anne Hidalgo cites in particular the nuclear sector. And so, behind all the logic on ecology, the environment, it is an issue that is of enormous importance for young people, including before 18 years old?
Yes, but of course. But to understand all the elements of the climate crisis that we are experiencing, that is to say, basically, how we will produce energy and by what means, in the 21st century, it is a challenge extremely complex which requires thought etc. So here is the question: it is the time that it took to get informed, do we listen to the news broadcasts, do we watch the debates, etc.
Social networks too? A lot of information circulating there too?
There are also social networks, of course young people mainly look at digital, their culture is extremely digital, but social networks are also closed networks, where everyone goes where they have knowledge who have the same convictions. That’s the whole problem with social media. It’s both great and at the same time, once you’ve entered a network of intellectual complicity, you tend to stay in it.
So there are all these elements in front of us, and in a way, I don’t know if this is a strong demand from the youth. I know that when we didn’t have the right to vote at 18, we strongly demanded it, saying we have the right to go to prison, we have the right to drive, etc. We have the right to work. Many young people were already employed at 18 years old. Today, is that so true? This is what is complicated. At 16, very few young people work. Are they already citizens who are building the city? This is the question that will be before us.
Me, on the other hand, I think that we would give them the right to vote in local elections, it would already be a step to say fundamentally in local elections, a bit like we do for European citizens who vote in France locally, but who do not vote national, perhaps we could go through a vote in local elections as the first training, so to speak, in democratic thinking.