Swiss Review 4/2021

Swiss Review / August 2021 / No.4 7 Teenagers react with delight at the Glarus open-air assembly on 6 May 2007, after the electorate decides to lower the cantonal voting age to 16. Photo: Keystone the introduction of a younger demo- graphic. If 16- and 17-year-olds are given a say on political matters im- mediately after they have finished compulsory schooling, while every­ thing that they have learned in class is still fresh in their minds, the idea is that in the long term this will in- crease the likelihood of them getting into the habit of voting. The ability to make reasoned decisions The Berne cantonal government, on the other hand, points to the discrep- ancy that would arise between the ages fromwhich young people could exercise civil and political rights. In Switzerland, you must be at least 18 years old to sign legal papers. If the voting age was 16, it would mean that you would not be allowed to sign pe- titions for referendums and popular initiatives – but you could vote on them. There would also be a discon- nect between the right to vote in elections and the right to stand for election: you could do the former now but would have to wait for two years to do the latter. Such an argument is a red herring that prevents us from creating a sys- tem that is truly geared to young people, says 20-year-old Philippe Kramer from the politically unaffili- ated pressure group Stimmrechts­ alter 16 (Voting Age at 16). In his view, playing one thing off against the other like that misses the point. What matters, he says, is the ability to make reasoned decisions, i.e. to knowwhat you are voting for or against. “You can certainly do that when you are 16.” According to psy- chologists, our ability to think coolly and calmly without time pressure or influence from friends is fully devel- oped by the time we are 16, he notes. Harnessing Instagram But where do young people get the information they need to vote? According to a survey, 70 per cent of 15- to 25-year-olds consume political news no more than once a week. However, a number of initiatives are trying to correct this. For several years, the Easyvote programme has been producing brochures and video clips that provide easy-to-understand information on elections and popu- lar votes. And a fewmonths ago, a collective of young journalists went online with @tauch.station – a social media project that researches politi- cal issues and explains them to young people on the popular, easily digestible photo- and video-sharing platform Instagram. It is not that young people have no interest in pol- itics per se: “But we believe democ- racy should also be about accessibil- ity,” says Alice Grosjean, 29, one of the co-founders of @tauch.station. The online world in which young people often spend their time is par- ticularly bereft of political coverage, she adds. Or its political content is too complicated. @tauch.station aims to rectify this. One could argue that the young demographic is ready for the voting age to be lowered to 16. Adult voters still need time to get used to the idea. Thanks to the efforts of National Councillor Sibel Arslan (canton of Basel-Stadt), the campaign to lower the voting age to 16 is up and running at federal level. Photo: Keystone