Definition of Universal Suffrage

There are two major trends in relation to the form of organization politics of a state: the democracy and the dictatorship. These two concepts have, in turn, a wide and varied terminology, depending on each country. However, they are the two fundamental options.

Democracy is a system in which citizens elect their representatives. And universal suffrage is the main mechanism of participation citizen. It consists of the right to vote in an election. At present, in democratic countries universal suffrage exists in a standardized way and is applied to the entire population older than 18 years-old. This is the general rule, although there are variants in each nation. For example, the age of majority and the right to vote is exercised from the age of 15 in Iran and from the age of 21 in the Ivory Coast. There are also some legal limitations when it comes to voting from the majority of age: not having a criminal record, not being a foreigner or not having a health problem mental. There is, therefore, a

rule (All adult citizens of a country can decide by vote who will be their representatives) and some exceptions and limitations that each state specifies in its electoral laws.

Universal suffrage did not exist in the Old Regime (prior to the French Revolution of 1789) and citizen participation was limited to those belonging to the nobility. In the eighteenth century, a series of philosophers promoted a new trend of thought (the enlightenment). They proposed profound social reforms and considered that democracy should be the accepted system in civilized nations. These ideas were implanted little by little in Europe, the United States and they were spreading throughout the world. Initially, the first democratic systems did not accept full universal suffrage, as there were many limitations: women could not vote or, in certain countries, those who belonged to some ethnicities.

These restrictions were gradually corrected and women were gradually recognized the right to vote. It was a slow and conflicting process in most cases. The struggle of the suffragettes is well known, a movement feminine that spread in many nations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These women vindicated the rights of women and one of them was the right to vote. Their fight had its fruits and the feminine vote extended to the majority of nations. One could not speak of something universal, if in fact only a part of the population participated.

In political language, an idea is used to summarize the meaning of universal suffrage: one person, one vote. This means that, leaving aside certain limitations and exceptions such as those already mentioned, the entire citizenship of legal age has the right to participate in elections, regardless of her sex, race or social condition.

Issues in Universal Suffrage