Concept
Suffrage
Overview
right to vote in public and political elections
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Suffrage is discussed.
The United States and the latest French republic are striking examples, and good old Switzerland has contributed its share to illustrate this point. That a democratic republic is not necessary for this fraternal bond between stock exchange and government is proved by England and last, not least, Germany, where it is doubtful whether Bismarck or Bleichroeder was more favored by the introduction of universal…
Friedrich Engels, The origin of the family, private property, and the state
names the idea; states what it is
It is possible, indeed (and this is perhaps one of the transitions through which we may have to pass in our progress to a really good representative system), that the barriers which restrict the suffrage might be entirely leveled in some particular constituencies, whose members, consequently, would be returned principally by manual laborers; the existing electoral qualification being maintained elsewhere, or any…
John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government
a chapter is titled for it; names the idea; opens on it
Article 15. The people have the inalienable right to choose their public officials and to dismiss them. (2) All public officials are servants of the whole community and not of any group thereof. (3) Universal adult suffrage is guaranteed with regard to the election of public officials. (4) In all elections, secrecy of the ballot shall not be violated. A voter shall not be answerable, publicly or privately, for the…
Japan, The Constitution of Japan, 1946
states what it is; names the idea
If true, it involves such a change in our now fashionable modes of procedure as fills me with astonishment and alarm. _If_ popular suffrage is not the way of ascertaining what the Laws of the Universe are, and who it is that will best guide us in the way of these,--then woe is to us if we do not take another method. Delolme on the British Constitution will not save us; deaf will the Parcae be to votes of the House…
Thomas Carlyle, Latter-Day Pamphlets
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Now it is well enough known, that in all those Cities, the manner of choosing Magistrates, and Officers, was by plurality of suffrages; and (because the ordinary way of distinguishing the Affirmative Votes from the Negatives, was by Holding up of Hands) to ordain an Officer in any of the Cities, was no more but to bring the people together, to elect them by plurality of Votes, whether it were by plurality of…
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
Related ideas
- Republic of Ireland
- Peru
- Women's suffrage
- Latin
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- United States House of Representatives
- Russian Empire
- Māori people
- Philippines
- Bhutan
- Presbyterianism
- Welfare spending
- United States Senate
- Romania
- Switzerland
- Aboriginal Australians
- Constitution of the United States
- United Kingdom
- United Nations
- United States Declaration of Independence
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Brazil
- United States
- Jacksonian democracy
Place in the tradition
Part of Liberalism.