The United States Of America

The Constitution And Democracy

Suffrage
Suffrage, the right to vote in an Election to choose governmental officers or to decide specific issues of government, such as the vote on a new constitution, a new constitutional provision, or a state or local bond issue.

Ancient Societies 
In early Western society, as in primitive communities today, suffrage was limited to the heads of a few families or clans. Only the leading chieftains were privileged to discuss and decide vital issues, or to be consulted by the tribal chief. Birth, or heritage, was the qualifying criterion for suffrage, although generally the ownership of property tended to be a factor in the grant of suffrage.

In ancient Greece the territorial unit of the city-state was often so small that the question of the scope of suffrage was not a divisive issue. For a long time, Athens, the most advanced and forward-looking of the Greek city-states, took the lead in developing a more democratic approach to the question of suffrage. Early in the 6th century B.C., distinctions of birth gave way to distinctions of property. This change expressed the transformation of the Athenian social system from a hereditary aristocracy into a commercial civilization based on a rising middle class and the developing intellectual attitudes of rationalism and individualism. The gradual development of critical political analysis, particularly during the great period of Periclean government in 5th century Athens, led to the establishment of suffrage based on citizenship rather than on property. Neither slaves nor women were included in the Greek concept of citizenship, however.

In ancient Rome, at first only the patrician families, endowed with property and social prestige, had the right to vote. But the Roman lower classes resented the denial of suffrage based on lack of property, and after centuries of often bitter social conflict they attained suffrage. As the Roman polity expanded to the Italian peninsula and to the whole Mediterranean basin, Roman citizenship was gradually broadened and, in 212 A.D., all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire were given the status of full-fledged Roman citizens. By that time the government of the Roman Empire had been transformed into an absolute monarchy, so that suffrage was more important in local and vocational, or guild, elections than in matters affecting imperial policy.

Medieval and Modern Evolution 
In the Middle Ages, both rights and obligations of a person were determined by his social status. The possession of land, or at least rights of tenure in land, generally determined the kind of suffrage a person possessed. Later on, as the landed economy merged with the commercial and industrial economy, ownership or tenure of land was replaced by other property qualifications, such as the payment of minimum taxes.

England 
Even in England, the mother of representative government, the progress from limited to universal suffrage was slow. Until 1832 the suffrage was so designed that a few hundred landowners were heavily represented in Parliament, while large urban areas were either not represented at all, or only very inadequately. The phenomenon of the small "rotten boroughs" led to discontent and political agitation. As a result the Reform Act of 1832 broadened the suffrage by including a larger share of the urban middle classes. Urban workers were added to the electorate in 1867 and farm workers in 1884. In 1918 all male voters 21 years old were given the suffrage. Women were also granted the vote, but the minimum age was 30 years. In 1928 the higher age requirement for women was lifted.

United States 
In the United States the growth of the suffrage was slow, though it was more rapid than in any other major democracy. The promises of equality contained in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution did not materialize at once. Religious qualifications, often required in colonial times, disappeared shortly after the American Revolution, but property and literacy qualifications continued for a long time. The first breakthrough in American suffrage came in the 1830's, the period of Andrew JACKSON 's radical democracy based on the equalitarian outlook of the Western frontiersmen, who increasingly asserted themselves in national politics. By 1860 universal suffrage for white males had become an accomplished fact. The 14th and the 15th amendments sought to ensure suffrage for blacks, but these constitutional provisions were not fully enforced in some states, where poll taxes and literacy tests kept most blacks from the polls. The 19th Amendment (1920) granted the suffrage to women, though some states had given women the suffrage long before. The 24th Amendment (1964) barred the use of a poll tax in federal elections. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 strengthened the hand of African Americans seeking to register in the South. The 26th Amendment (1971) and subsequent legislation granted suffrage to persons 18 years old or older.

Totalitarian States 
The political system of fascism and some communist systems in the 20th century have generally adhered to the forms of universal suffrage without living up to its spirit. Because neither the fascist system under Hitler nor the Soviet communist regime under Stalin, for example, allowed opposition parties or free election campaigns, and because the vote was generally open, suffrage in these states became the expression of the force of the state rather than of the free choice of the citizens. Because the act of abstaining from the vote might have been interpreted as an expression of hostility to the government in power, and because there was no secret vote, election results in these totalitarian states were generally over 99% in favor of the government. The fact that these regimes felt compelled to hold elections underscores the strength of the belief that elections confer legitimacy. In democratic systems the counting of the vote is supervised by representatives of all competing political groups.

Modern Concepts 
Although direct government is impossible in large nation-states in the day-to-day business of state, and use must therefore be made of representative institutions, the suffrage expresses the notion that there can be no free government and no free citizens without some direct participation in the making of political decisions. However, suffrage is only the first step toward such direct participation, and a government can exist only if its citizens supplement the periodic act of voting by continuous political expression on all levels of government--local, state, and federal. This modern concept of the suffrage as involving responsibilities as well as rights is a return to the classical Greek concept of citizenship as active participation in the government of the community.

William Ebenstein 
University of California, Santa Barbara