Finally, there is no evidence that the quality of vote choices among citizens under 18 is any worse than that of older voters. Second, these factors do not help to explain their lower turnout rates, so we cannot say that young citizens fail to vote for reasons that are particularly troubling for democratic legitimacy. First, measures of political interest, knowledge and non-electoral participation indicate that young people under 18 are not particularly unable or unwilling to participate in political life. Is this pattern due to the fact that Austrians under 18 are particularly unable or unwilling to participate in politics? Our findings show that this is not the case. This is lower than among respondents aged between 18 and 21 (6.24) and between those aged between 22 and 25 (6.98), while respondents over 30 have a mean score of 7.38. Using the self-assessed likelihood of voting on a scale of 0–10, under-18s have a low average intention of turning out, with a mean score of 5.91. Our survey indicates that the intention to turn out was indeed relatively low among citizens under 18 in the 2009 EP election. Before, the only possible empirical strategies were either to extrapolate about the behaviour of citizens under 18 from that of voters just over 18 or to study the potential electoral behaviour of young people under 18 in a context where they did not have the vote. Austria's reform allows us to examine for the first time whether the critics of lowering the minimum voting age are right. Specifically, we use a survey carried out in the run-up to the European Parliament (EP) elections 2009 which over-sampled young people under 26. We examine the choices made by young people under 18 using data from Austria, where in 2007 the voting age at national elections was lowered to 16. Instead, we might consider potential positive consequences of the reform, such as tying young people to the democratic process, encouraging the development of a habit of voting and ensuring the representation of their interests. If the answer is no, then critics are arguably left with fewer arguments why we should oppose lowering the voting age. Are young people under 18 less able and motivated to participate effectively in politics? And do these factors influence whether and how they use their right to vote? If the answer to these questions is yes, then lowering the voting age could indeed have negative consequences for the health of democracy. In this paper, we test whether these critics are right. Thus, their vote choice would be driven more strongly by expressive instead of instrumental considerations ( Tóka, 2009), and their policy views would not be well-represented by political actors. While they might vote for the sake of voting, they would not challenge the government to respond to their interests. A further consequence would be that citizens under 18 might not make use of their vote as effectively as older voters. It is suggested that this will lead to low turnout rates, comparable to – if not even lower than – those observed among citizens aged 18–25 ( Electoral Commission, 2004). The main argument made against lowering the voting age is that young people under 18 lack the ability and motivation to participate effectively in the electoral process ( Chan and Clayton, 2006). However, the proposed reform is not without its critics. For example, it is also seen as a way to ensure that the interests of young citizens are represented in the political system ( Votes at 16, 2008). Of course, lowering the voting age is not only justified as a way to stop the decline in turnout. In the long term, this higher level of participation at a young age may then facilitate the early development of a habit of voting (e.g. This is because young people under 18 are likely to still be in school and live with their families, two factors that have been shown to encourage turnout through a variety of socialisation mechanisms ( Franklin, 2004 Highton and Wolfinger, 2001 Bhatti and Hansen, 2010). Supporters of such a reform argue that lowering the voting age would have a positive impact on electoral participation. Power Commission, 2006 Votes at 16, 2008 Hart and Artkins, 2011). In light of these developments, it has been suggested that the minimum voting age should be lowered to 16 (e.g. This has led to fears that democratic legitimacy may decline as elections increasingly fail to act as the ‘institutional connection’ ( Topf, 1995a) between citizens and the state. Aarts and Wessels, 2005 Blais and Rubenson, 2007 Franklin et al., 2004). The level of turnout at elections is often seen as an indicator of the health of a democracy ( Fieldhouse et al., 2007), yet there is a general trend towards declining rates of electoral participation in Western Europe (e.g.
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