The electorate, universal adult franchise and franchise for women

1. The electorate: meaning and importance

The franchise or suffrage is the right to vote. The electorate is the body of citizens who possess it and who choose representatives at elections. In a democracy the electorate is the ultimate political sovereign: Dicey distinguished the legal sovereign (Parliament) from the political sovereign (the electorate), whose will in the end prevails.

Importance: it elects the legislature and, directly or indirectly, the executive; it decides between parties and programmes, giving the winner a mandate; it can remove a government at the next election; in Switzerland and some American States it legislates directly through initiative and referendum and can recall officials; and its opinion, expressed between elections, restrains those in office. For these reasons some writers treat the electorate as a fourth organ of government alongside the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

2. Qualifications

Every state limits the franchise in some way. The necessary qualifications today are:

1. Citizenship: aliens do not vote in national elections (a few countries allow long-resident foreigners to vote locally).
2. Age: usually 18. India lowered it from 21 to 18 by the 61st Amendment, 1988 (Article 326). Austria and some others allow voting at 16.
3. Residence in the constituency for a period: in India, being “ordinarily resident” (section 19, Representation of the People Act 1950).
4. Registration on the electoral roll. Since 2022 India has four qualifying dates in the year (1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October) for enrolling those who turn 18.

Historically states also used qualifications now abandoned: property (Britain before 1918), taxpaying, education or literacy tests (used in the American South to exclude Black voters until the Voting Rights Act 1965), sex, religion and race.

3. Disqualifications

• Unsoundness of mind, declared by a competent court.
• Conviction for crime, or for corrupt or illegal practices at elections.
• Non-citizenship.
• Bankruptcy (some countries).

In India section 16 of the 1950 Act disqualifies a person who is not a citizen, is of unsound mind so declared by a competent court, or is disqualified under a law relating to corrupt practices and offences connected with elections. Section 62(5) of the 1951 Act bars voting by a person confined in prison.

4. J.S. Mill's views

In Considerations on Representative Government (1861), chapter 8, Mill argued for an extension of the suffrage to all, since everyone has an interest in being governed well and taking part educates the citizen. But he would exclude:

• those who cannot read, write and perform the common operations of arithmetic, since universal teaching must precede universal enfranchisement;
• those who pay no taxes, because those who vote taxes should pay them (he proposed a small direct tax on everyone so that all might qualify);
• those receiving parish (poor-law) relief;
• undischarged bankrupts.

He also proposed plural voting: one vote for everyone, but extra votes for those of superior education or occupation, so that the more competent would have more weight (taken up in the note on methods of election). And he insisted that sex is irrelevant to political rights, “as entirely irrelevant as difference in height or in the colour of the hair.”

5. Universal adult franchise

Universal adult franchise means that every adult citizen has the right to vote, without discrimination of sex, race, religion, caste, property, education or class, subject only to the necessary qualifications and disqualifications above. It rests on the principle of “one person, one vote, one value”.

Features: universality (all adults); equality (each vote counts the same); the age criterion; no property, educational or sex qualification; secrecy of the ballot; and periodic elections.

India adopted it at one stroke in 1950 (Article 326), when most of the population could not read, a step many in the West had taken over a century. The first general election of 1951–52 used party symbols so that illiterate voters could vote.

Merits:

1. It follows from popular sovereignty and political equality: if the State affects all, all should have a say.
2. It gives legitimacy and stability, since government rests on the consent of all.
3. It protects the interests of every class; the excluded are always neglected.
4. It is a means of political education, making citizens take an interest in public affairs.
5. It gives a sense of dignity and self-respect to the poor and weak.
6. It is a peaceful means of change: ballots instead of bullets.
7. It reduces corruption, since a large electorate is harder to bribe than a small one.

Demerits:

1. The vote of the ignorant counts equally with the vote of the wise; Lecky and Maine thought this government by the least capable.
2. Illiterate and poor voters are open to manipulation, bribery and emotional appeals of caste, religion and region.
3. It gives power to numbers, not quality: the “tyranny of the majority” (Mill, Tocqueville).
4. Large electorates make elections expensive, increasing the power of money.
5. Many voters are indifferent and abstain.

The answer to the demerits is not to restrict the franchise but to improve its conditions: education, a free press, honest administration of elections and civic awareness. Indian experience since 1952, with high turnouts and repeated peaceful changes of government, is often cited against the pessimists.

6. Franchise for women

Arguments against (historically made): women's place is in the home; politics will corrupt them and break up the family; women are emotional and lack political judgment; they will vote as their husbands tell them; they do not serve in the army; and the family is the unit of representation.

Arguments for: women are citizens and human beings with the same capacity for reason; their interests (education, health, property, family law) will be neglected if they have no vote; political equality is the basis of democracy; they pay taxes and obey the law; their participation improves public life; and the experience of countries that enfranchised women refuted every fear. Mill (The Subjection of Women, 1869) was the leading advocate; as an MP he moved an amendment to the Reform Bill of 1867 to replace “man” with “person”. It was defeated.

Conditions today. Women vote in practically every country with elections; Saudi Arabia admitted women to municipal elections in 2015. The question has moved from the right to vote to representation. In India women's turnout has risen to equal or exceed men's in the recent general elections, but their share of seats in the Lok Sabha remains low. The Constitution (106th Amendment) Act 2023 reserves one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women, to take effect after the delimitation that follows the next census. One-third reservation in panchayats and municipalities has applied since the 73rd and 74th Amendments (1992).

How this is examined

For the electorate: definition, importance, necessary qualifications, disqualifications with the Indian law, and Mill's views. For universal adult franchise: meaning, features, the seven merits and five demerits, and the Indian adoption in 1950. For women's suffrage: the arguments on each side, Mill, the table of dates and the 106th Amendment.