In The Corner, Andrew Stuttaford calls attention to a voting proposal to allow parents extra ballots for each child under eighteen. Stuttaford thinks this is a terrible idea, and quotes a Green Party representative who thinks it would be great to give the ‘little people” the vote.
Normally, the fact that the German Green Party supports something is prima facie evidence that it’s bad.
But I think that such a policy would have unintended consequences that liberals wouldn’t like, at least if it were implemented with the parents voting on behalf of their children, rather than the children themselves casting a ballot.
First of all, it would certainly increase the pro-life vote, since people who oppose abortion tend to have more children than those who support it.
In general, the voting patterns of people with children tend to be more conservative than people without children. If you give more weight to votes of people with children, that would increase the number of conservative votes.
Finally, it would increase the incentives to have more children. Germany, like most European countries, is facing a huge demographic crisis, with birthrates far below replacement level. While the additional votes themselves would certainly not be enough incentive to change this pattern, politicians would pay more attention to parents’ concerns. Tax incentives would change to be more friendly toward parents. As the financial burdens of having children lessened, family sizes would increase. This would create a feedback loop: larger families lead to more political power, which leads to favorable tax treatment for larger families, which leades to larger families.
(Note: This entry was originally published on my now-defunct political blog, Attilathepundit.com.)