Suffrage

Suffrage is the legal entitlement to cast a vote in public elections or referenda. It defines who counts as a member of the political community for the purpose of selecting representatives or deciding policy questions, and is typically governed by constitutional provisions, electoral codes, and citizenship laws.

Historically, suffrage was restricted by property ownership, sex, race, literacy, and religion. The expansion of the franchise is one of the central narratives of modern political history:

• Universal male suffrage spread across much of Europe and the Americas during the 19th and early 20th centuries, often tied to military service or tax reform.
• Women's suffrage was secured in New Zealand in 1893, followed by Australia (1902, with racial exclusions), Finland (1906), the United Kingdom (full equal franchise in 1928), and the United States via the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Switzerland did not extend federal voting rights to women until 1971, and the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden was compelled to do so by a Federal Supreme Court ruling in 1990.
• Racial barriers in the United States persisted despite the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) and were dismantled in practice only with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
• Apartheid South Africa denied the vote to the Black majority until the 1994 general election.

International instruments anchor suffrage as a human right. Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) affirms periodic and genuine elections by universal and equal suffrage, and Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) creates a binding obligation on states parties.

Contemporary debates concern the voting age (lowered to 16 in Austria for national elections in 2007, and in Scottish and Welsh devolved elections), felon disenfranchisement, voter identification requirements, residency rules for expatriates, and the franchise of non-citizen residents in local elections. Active suffrage refers to the right to vote; passive suffrage refers to the right to stand for election.