Does voting rights affect the political maturity of 16- and 17-year-olds? Findings from the 2011 Norwegian voting-age trial

A key question in an ongoing debate about voting age is whether people below the age of 18 are politically mature enough to take part in elections. Previous research indicate that 16- and 17-year-olds are not as mature as other voters when the voting age is at 18 (Chan and Clayton, 2006), but that such age-differences are evened out when 16-year olds are given the right to vote (Wagner et al., 2012).This paper tests that hypothesis by utilizing data from a Norwegian trial in which the voting age was lowered from 18 to 16 in some municipalities. The results are that there is a significant gap in maturity between 16- and 17- year olds and older voters. There is no evidence to indicate that adolescent maturity levels go up when the voting age is lowered.

► The paper uses data from a trial when the voting age was lowered to 16.
► 16- and 17-year-olds have lower levels of political maturity than 18-year-olds.
► This age-difference remains after the lowering of the voting age to 16.
► Voting rights do not affect the political maturity of adolescents.