Getting newborns to vote too: an idea for the demographic tsunami
“Childless cat.” In the USA, and not only, the statement by JD Vance, candidate for vice president with Donald Trump, has caused a lot of discussion. Vance justified himself this way: he meant that people who choose not to have children are suspect and deserve contempt. Well, coincidentally Kamala Harris has “only” two stepchildren. Taylor Swift, 34 year old without children, responded to him with a now famous “endorsement”: a photo with a beautiful cat, to express her support for Harris.
The theme of families with children
In every public speech Vance relaunches the topic, putting the greater importance of families with children, compared to those without, back at the center of the discussion. A topic that has haunted him not since today. In 2021, in a speech at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, he declared: “When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power, you should have more ability to make your voice heard in our democratic republic, than the people who have no children.” In Italy, however, we are witnessing a timid commitment from Catholic movements in this direction. For example, there are those who push for the “trust vote”. A very strong proposal in our eyes: parents would also be asked to express the vote of their minor children. A way to give more weight to young couples in politics.
Matteo Rizzolli and the trust vote
Matteo Rizzolli, for example, is an associate professor of economic policy at the Lumsa University of Rome and a permanent professor of political economy of family institutions at the John Paul II Institute. He is married and has six children. For the teacher this is a “very serious proposal”, which had already emerged in the 19th century, when instead of voting by wealth (which excluded women) they wanted to introduce the vote for the father of the family. The idea remained dormant until the 1980s. Then, a Hungarian demographer, Paul Demeny, faced with the birth rate decline, questioned the economic measures that should have accompanied the vote extended to minors, mediated by adults. From that moment the proposal took its name.
The Italian demographic tsunami
The Catholic world was the first, in unsuspecting times, to denounce the demographic tsunami that could overwhelm Italy in the coming years. With empty cradles and declining immigration, checks and bonuses cannot straighten out the Italian demographic winter. More radical measures would be needed.
This is why Rizzolli calls for “truly universal suffrage”. “Currently children are part of the people but they do not vote, article 1 of the Constitution is not respected. In a society when a child is born, the philosopher John Wall explained it well, a vote should be expressed and a newborn obviously cannot do that A fiduciary vote is therefore applied, expressed by the parents on behalf of the child who is not able to express it at that moment. And the precedents are already there”. What is it referring to? “In the case of blind people and people with limb amputations, the fiduciary vote already applies: another adult accompanies the person to the polling stations and expresses it on their behalf. But voting abroad also already exists. The State sends the ballot papers to Italian families residing abroad. The votes are sent back from this family unit in Italy. Do we know who really expressed the preferences in that unit? So it’s not such a remote proposal in our system “.
Could a trust vote solve anything? “The measure of voting for children would be a cultural move, not an economic one. A way to undermine the individualistic perception of society, for which children are a cost, placing them instead at the centre. It would give centrality to families. Then it is obvious that there it would also have an economic impact. If children vote, politics would certainly be more attentive.”
The age of maturity for voting
Usually an age of maturity for voting is established. In Italy, as in most countries in the world, it is set at 18 years. The proposal to lower the threshold is already finding more favor in national politics. For example, the Democratic Party talked about it a few years ago. “Wall – continues Prof. Rizzolli – maintains that there is no age of maturity. Eighteen is not the threshold for everyone. Because, for example, many elderly people no longer have the necessary maturity, in society we have many people with senile dementia , Alzheimer’s. Why can they vote and minors cannot?
Voting for minors as a measure of equity
What could he do? “For example, a boy who attends middle school, after having participated in a civic education course, could apply to vote for the mayor of his municipality. I find it a sensible and linear idea. I don’t understand why we have to discriminate against minors, while in Italy millions of elderly people vote in precarious mental conditions, due to illnesses. And no one questions this, because it is rightly a right of citizenship, which however should also apply to a 14 year old.