ifo Dresden berichtet 6/2017

More or less populism? How would the 2017 Bundestag election have proceeded without the minimum voting age of 18?

Children and young people are not entitled to vote in Bundestag elections. This is usually justified by a lack of political maturity. In this article, we simulate how the 2017 federal elections would have proceeded without the minimum voting age of 18 ("children's right to vote"). We use data from the so-called junior and U18 elections, in which over one million children and young people under the age of 18 took part in 2017. The results show surprising effects of the abolition of the age limit on the election result: parties of the democratic centre would have been strengthened, while parties on the left and right political margins would have lost approval. For example, the AfD would have received two fewer seats in the Bundestag if children and young people had been entitled to vote.

Rösel, Felix