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Representing the future in aging societies: Policy implications of the voting age reform in Germany

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  • Asatryan, Zareh

Abstract

Aging societies face a fundamental challenge: How to represent future oriented policies in the politics of today? Voting age reforms and, more generally, policies that encourage the participation of the youth in politics are discussed as one solution. In this report, we study whether voting age reforms are radical enough to save us from gerontocracy. We show that there are certain policy fields that have strong age gradients. Although these are very far from being linear and often go in unexpected directions compared to a view that sees voters as simple self-interested actors.

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  • Asatryan, Zareh, 2022. "Representing the future in aging societies: Policy implications of the voting age reform in Germany," ZEW Expert Briefs 22-04, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewexb:2204
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    1. Tak Wing Chan & Matthew Clayton, 2006. "Should the Voting Age be Lowered to Sixteen? Normative and Empirical Considerations," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 54(3), pages 533-558, October.
    2. Hoffman, Mitchell & León, Gianmarco & Lombardi, María, 2017. "Compulsory voting, turnout, and government spending: Evidence from Austria," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 103-115.
    3. Fernanda Leite Lopez de Leon & Renata Rizzi, 2014. "A Test for the Rational Ignorance Hypothesis: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Brazil," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 380-398, November.
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