When my friend told me she wasn’t allowed to vote I was shocked. She came to Germany when she was still a child and lived there for over ten years but she was not allowed to give her opinion on how her country should be ruled because on paper it was not her country. She was excluded from deciding over a system that was effecting her everyday life.
We call our system the “government of the people”, a system where everyone’s voice is equal, but how can we if not everyone has the same opportunities to engage in politics?
This phenomenon dates back to the supposed first democracy: Greece. We only associate it with good things: Freedom and the power of the people who could finally decide for themselves. However, we forget that the majority of the population (women and slaves) were not allowed to vote – and, oh wonder, there were no bills passed that benefited these groups.
So you could say that this system was still an aristocracy - a government of the few over the many.
The same problem still exists today. There are no bills passed that favor those who have no voting right. How can we expect to stop racism if the people most affected by this are not allowed to engage politically?
It is often argued that people who do not have the citizenship should not have the same rights because “they don’t really belong to our society”. But the truth is that you cannot decide who belongs to your society. If they are here, they are impacting others and ergo part of the system. The only question is if we give migrants a chance to be an active part of society and let them form their own environment for example by electing someone who represents their interests. Or if we refuse them this opportunity and force them to live an other-directed life - robbed of power and their human rights.
In a real democracy we should choose the first option.
So, why don’t we give everyone the voting right of the state that they mostly live in? Why don’t we erase the need for bureaucratic procedures? Why don’t we honor human rights and especially the freedom of the individual?
We call our system the “government of the people”, a system where everyone’s voice is equal, but how can we if not everyone has the same opportunities to engage in politics?
This phenomenon dates back to the supposed first democracy: Greece. We only associate it with good things: Freedom and the power of the people who could finally decide for themselves. However, we forget that the majority of the population (women and slaves) were not allowed to vote – and, oh wonder, there were no bills passed that benefited these groups.
So you could say that this system was still an aristocracy - a government of the few over the many.
The same problem still exists today. There are no bills passed that favor those who have no voting right. How can we expect to stop racism if the people most affected by this are not allowed to engage politically?
It is often argued that people who do not have the citizenship should not have the same rights because “they don’t really belong to our society”. But the truth is that you cannot decide who belongs to your society. If they are here, they are impacting others and ergo part of the system. The only question is if we give migrants a chance to be an active part of society and let them form their own environment for example by electing someone who represents their interests. Or if we refuse them this opportunity and force them to live an other-directed life - robbed of power and their human rights.
In a real democracy we should choose the first option.
So, why don’t we give everyone the voting right of the state that they mostly live in? Why don’t we erase the need for bureaucratic procedures? Why don’t we honor human rights and especially the freedom of the individual?
JULIA FÉAUX DE LACROIX
Julia is a German volunteer in Praxis organisation involved in the World Democracy Day campaign.
