%0 Journal Article %T Why the voting age should be lowered to 16 %A Tommy Peto %J Politics, Philosophy & Economics %@ 1741-3060 %D 2018 %R 10.1177/1470594X17705651 %X This article examines whether the voting age should be lowered to 16. The dominant view in the literature is that 16-year-olds in the United Kingdom are not politically mature enough to vote since they lack political knowledge, political interest and stable political preferences (Chan and Clayton, 2006). I reject this conclusion and instead argue that the voting age should be lowered to 16. First, I look at Chan and ClaytonĄ¯s empirical claims and show that these features of 16- and 17-year-olds are in fact created by exclusionary social practices and therefore that these features cannot be used to justify their exclusion from the vote. Second, I evaluate preliminary evidence from Austria which suggests that 16- and 17-year-olds, when actually given the vote, are politically mature. Third, I show that, on a balance of harms, considering that some 16- and 17-year-olds are mature, we still should lower the voting age even if some 16- and 17-year-olds are not politically mature. I conclude that the voting age should be lowered to (at least) 16 %K suffrage %K voting age %K youth enfranchisement %K votes at 16 %K lowering the voting age %K voting rights %K childrenĄ¯s rights %K youth politics %K youth political engagement %K children in democracy %U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1470594X17705651