3.3.5 Universal Suffrage

3.3.5 Universal Suffrage

When we think about the right to vote (suffrage), we frequently think about the rights of women. But women were not the only people unable to vote after governments adopted classical liberal principles. Working class men, the foreign born, and people without wealth or property could not vote in many countries. The evolution towards modern liberalism meant gradual enfranchisement (voting rights) for all citizens.

In the United States, African-American slaves in the South could not vote until slavery was abolished. In many parts of the South, black voters were disenfranchised (denied their right to vote through voter registration control) until the Civil Rights Act of 1960 protected their right to vote. In Canada, First Nations people could not vote until 1960. In fact, almost half the adult population in most liberal democracies was not allowed to vote until sometime in the 20^th century.



Today, the mentally ill, the mentally handicapped, and people in jail cannot vote in many nations. Women in some countries still cannot vote.

Without the universal right to vote, are people really free? If citizens cannot choose their elected officials, who determines "rule of law" or decides what individual rights and freedoms, including economic freedom, to which the average person is entitled? The development of participatory democracy in which all adult citizens are entitled to make choices about their government had a key role in the evolution of liberalism.