Family suffrage

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The family option refers to a form of participation in elections, in which the parents cast a vote for their not voting children. This has recently been discussed in democratic societies in order to give the interests of children who are not entitled to vote a weight in elections.

Family suffrage in Germany

In Germany, the concept of family suffrage has a meaning only related to minors. Alternative names are Parental choice , right to vote from birth , (Deputy) Children suffrage and Deputy option of parents for their children . Primarily connected with the desire to strengthen the political participation of families, family associations, lawyers and politicians have repeatedly suggested the introduction of family suffrage. According to this, minor citizens should also be eligible to vote in the parliamentary elections. In the case of the right to vote for parents, the right to vote should be exercised by the parents on behalf of their children up to the age of majority.

With the right to vote from birth, however, parents should only exercise the right to vote for their children on a fiduciary basis until they have themselves entered in the electoral roll. This would automatically end the fiduciary option of the parents. The German Family Association and the former Federal Family Minister Renate Schmidt advocate this form of family suffrage .

Accordingly, in 2003 MPs from several parliamentary groups in the German Bundestag applied for “Dare to have more democracy through voting rights from birth” ( Bundestag printed paper 15/1544). They formally demanded the right to vote for children, which, however, should be exercised by the parents up to the age of majority. The applicants included the then Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse ( SPD ), as well as his two deputies Hermann Otto Solms ( FDP ) and Antje Vollmer ( THE GREENS ). The application was ultimately rejected. In 2008, 46 MPs from all parliamentary groups in the Bundestag again submitted a motion calling on the federal government to submit a draft law to introduce the right to vote from birth. This request also had no consequences.

In March 2017, the German Family Association initiated the campaign "Right to vote from birth - only those who vote counts", with which the 2017 federal election campaign should be accompanied. The association wanted to draw attention to the fact that 13 million German citizens will be excluded from the elections to the Bundestag.

The parties that have family suffrage firmly in the program include B. the family party of Germany .

criticism

There are legal arguments against family voting rights. It would contradict the principles of equality and immediacy of elections anchored in Article 38 (1) of the Basic Law (GG) and the state constitutions . However, according to controversial opinion, a change to this article would be unconstitutional in accordance with Article 79 (3) of the Basic Law ( guarantee of eternity in Articles 1 and 20 of the Basic Law) .

The former judges at the Federal Constitutional Court Roman Herzog ( CDU ), Paul Kirchhof , the former Federal Family Minister Renate Schmidt and the German Family Association rate the introduction of family suffrage as legally possible. They argue that the general public of choice according to Article 20.2 of the Basic Law and Article 38.1 of the Basic Law is only realized through family suffrage and can be implemented under constitutional law. For this purpose, Article 38 (2) of the Basic Law must be amended accordingly with the required two-thirds majority .

Another argument put forward against family suffrage relates to the self-determination of people below the minimum voting age. It assumes that the political attitudes or party preferences of the under 18 year olds can differ from those of their parents. In practice, however, the parents' right to vote could not be withdrawn immediately if there was an open dissent. Opponents of the family suffrage therefore demand a right to vote with a flexible age limit.

See also

literature

  • Karl H. Fell, Bernhard Jans (Ed.): Family suffrage - for and against . Documentation of the symposium "Family - Representation of interests and constitution" of the Family Association of German Catholics in Stuttgart-Hohenheim 1995. Vektor-Verlag, Grafschaft 1996, ISBN 3-929304-14-7 .
  • Patrick Christian Otto: Simple legal and constitutional limits to the introduction of family suffrage . In: Law Studies & Exams . Edition 3/2015. Tübingen 2015, p. 245–248 ( booklet as PDF , 1.3 MB).
  • Anne Marlene Simon-Holtorf: History of family suffrage in France (1871 to 1945) . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-631-52945-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German Family Association: http://www.deutscher-familienverband.de/index.php?id=3270&no_cache=1&sword_list%5B%5D=familienwahlrecht
  2. ↑ German Bundestag 16th electoral period: Giving the future a vote - For voting rights from birth (PDF; 85 kB). Printed paper 16/9868, accessed on July 9, 2008.
  3. ↑ http://www.wahlrecht.jetzt
  4. ↑ May we withhold the right to vote from children ?: https://philpapers.org/archive/KIEDWK.pdf
  5. ↑ https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/index.html
  6. ↑ cf. for example Schreiber, right to vote from birth - end of discussion ?, DVBl. 2004, 1341 ff, 1348 .; on the other hand: Wernsmann, The democratic principle and demographic change - Do we need family suffrage ?, Der Staat 2005, 43 ff., 66., who considers the model to be constitutionally unobjectionable, although he rejects it in terms of content
  7. ↑ Right to vote without age limit? Constitutional, democratic-theoretical and developmental psychological aspects: Archive link ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.generationenrechte.de
  8. ^ Tremmel, Jörg: Democracy, Epistocracy and the exclusion of minors from the right to vote. In: Tremmel, Jörg / Rutsche, Markus (Hrsg.): Political participation of young people. Basics - Perspectives - Case Studies . Wiesbaden, Springer VS 2015, p. 107-144 .