What is universal suffrage? This is an opportunity to vote in elections for all citizens of the country, regardless of their gender, religion, nationality, social status, income level, etc. With universal suffrage, there is only one qualification - age. Citizens who have the right to vote in elections thus elect their representatives to state authorities, participate in referenda and elect the head of state.
Political progress
Today, universal suffrage is a mandatory attribute of democratic states. However, mankind had to go a long and thorny path to achieve its establishment in most countries of the world.
It is also important that the introduction of universal suffrage in different eras implied different reforms. For the first time this principle was implemented in revolutionary France at the end of the 18th century. However, the then society believed that universal suffrage was the privilege of only the male part of the population.
French revolution
In 1792, the Parisian rebels captured the royal palace. The monarch was overthrown. The revolutionaries decided to establish a new supreme legislative and representative body. It was the famous National Convention.
At the same time, a decree was issued on August 11, 1792, regulating the upcoming elections to this new institution. It was this document that actually introduced universal suffrage in the country. This was a landmark event, the importance of which has become especially noticeable over time.
National Convention Elections
Before the decree of 1792, French voters were divided into active and passive. To get the right to vote, you had to be a resident of the city and pay enough taxes. It was a classic property qualification, which repealed the decree "On the convening of the National Convention." Now, for admission to the elections, it was enough to be a Frenchman over 21 years old and have an annual settlement at his place of residence. The new legislation also introduced the custom of taking a civil oath.
The elections of 1792 compared to the modern election process, for example, in France, were far from universal (women still could not vote). However, it was precisely the events of the Great Revolution that did much for their further democratization. The property qualification was abolished, and people with different social status (for example, aristocrats and peasants) were equalized in rights. The reduction of the age limit from 25 to 21 years also met the interests of the masses.
Old and New Order
In Europe, the struggle for guaranteeing universal suffrage continued throughout the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the century, along with the French Revolution in the Old World, the process of abandoning the remnants of the legacy of medieval feudalism began.
All European states (except Switzerland) were still monarchies. It was an outdated and ineffective form of government. The existence of kingdoms, principalities, and duchies did not suit the bourgeoisie, which sought to strengthen its position with the help of democratic mechanisms.
Towards Change
For a century, progressive society, students, workers, urban poor and intellectuals have been trying to force their authorities to introduce universal suffrage. This requirement appeared in the 1920s. XIX century among members of the English trade unions. However, conservative monarchist and aristocratic circles opposed electoral reforms. They realized that democracy posed a danger to their own privileged future.
Even in France, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the restoration of the monarchy, a property qualification was again introduced. And only after the revolution of 1848 and the overthrow of King Louis Philippe , the new Constitution finally secured the right of all men to vote in elections. Since then, no reactionaries have canceled it. After that reform, the number of French voters increased from 240 thousand to 9 million.
Suffragists
Although by the end of the 19th century, all men could vote in many countries, the problem of women's suffrage was never resolved in any of these states. The struggle for appropriate reform began suffragists. For the first time, such amendments appeared in the laws of New Zealand in 1893. The principles of universal suffrage were first introduced precisely in this country, since without involving a female electorate one cannot speak of any of their βuniversalityβ.
Over the next few decades, suffragists achieved their demands in several more countries. Interestingly, in the Russian Empire, women were allowed to vote as early as 1906. True, the effect of that reform spread only to the territory of the Grand Duchy of Finland. It was not the only such experiment. In Finland, Russian monarchs often introduced cutting-edge innovations that for various reasons they could not realize in the rest of the empire.
Suffrage in Russia
After the revolution of 1905, the State Duma appeared in Russia. However, parliamentary elections were limited by various qualifications. Different oppositionists opposed this, primarily the left. They demanded that universal suffrage be introduced in the country. Parliamentary evolution in tsarist Russia was frustrated by the onset of World War I. And only after the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks who came to power announced that they would get rid of the "bourgeois" electoral legislation.
Although Lenin criticized many orders of the capitalist countries, he was not going to refuse the election. He opposed representative institutions (councils) to obsolete parliamentarism. In January 1918, the meeting of the just-opened Constituent Assembly was disrupted . After this episode, the Bolsheviks began to build their own state, without regard to their political opponents.
Bolshevik reform
According to Lenin's ideology, in the future communism was to come - the ideal state of society. This utopia had little in common with the state, but at the same time , the Bolshevik leader believed that for some time the state with its elected institutions should be abandoned. First of all, this was done in order to protect the gains of the revolution. The fall of the autocracy opened up great scope for the Bolsheviks to experiment in building a new state.
On July 10, 1918, the Constitution of the RSFSR was adopted (before the creation of the USSR, there were another 4 years). A separate section of it was devoted to the legislation on the election of Soviets. For the first time in Russian history, the principle of universal suffrage was formally enshrined in this document. Women could vote now. According to the wording, suffrage "was vested in all citizens of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic." The age limit was established at around 18 years old.
At the same time, people living on unearned income (parasites), ministers of the church, agents of the former tsarist police, criminals and mentally ill lost their voices. The Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918 reflected the basic guarantees of universal suffrage. However, the document had many legal gaps regarding the election. They were supplemented by individual local and republican instructions.
English experience
In Britain, workers' unions have become the flagship of the struggle for universal suffrage. From year to year they sought political change. The Chartist movement gained the greatest fame . Relaxation occurred gradually. By the end of the 19th century, authorities allowed universal suffrage for men. This was done without revolution, as in the rest of Europe.
The struggle for women's political equality in Britain continued for several decades. The suffrage movement in this country was one of the most powerful in the Old World. However, the opposition between society and the state has not reached its peak. The First World War began, which slowed down political processes not only in the Foggy Albion, but also in other European countries.
In early 1918, the government of Prime Minister Lloyd George passed a law granting suffrage to all women over 30. Everything was done without any hype. Even in parliament, only 23 deputies opposed. The country was preoccupied with the war, and it was not up to political changes. With the advent of peace, the British discovered that they were living in a new advanced society without gender discrimination.
USA
Immediately after the formation of the United States, the Constitution was adopted in this country. For the end of the XVIII century it was the most advanced and progressive document. He regulated some of the most important features of suffrage. However, each state individually determined its own legislation, including that related to elections. For example, at the beginning of the 19th century in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, property participants existed for election participants.
A serious problem for suffrage and the whole country was slavery. It was common in the southern agricultural states, in which an inevitable conflict was brewing with the industrialized north. A civil war broke out (1861-1865). Only after its end, slavery was finally abolished.
Several amendments to the Constitution followed, which gradually increased the number of people endowed with suffrage. Blacks joined this group. And in 1920, the XIX amendment was adopted, which gave women the right to vote. It was an unconditional victory suffragists. So in the United States, universal suffrage triumphed.