從世界潮流到世代正義──下修投票年齡與青少年政治參與

From World Trends to Generational Justice: Lowering the Voting Age and Youth Political Participation in Taiwan

臺灣自一九九○年代以來歷經數次憲法修正，共識最高的降低投票年齡卻仍為憲改未竟之業。下修最低投票年齡，意謂給予青少年更多政治參與權利，以解決此群體在國會代表性不足，以及制度性資源分布不均的問題。本文採取法律史的研究方法，檢視自一九九○年代以來調降最低投票年齡之倡議的歷程，包括國會與公民團體之論述，以及修改憲法第130條與公民投票法第7條之行動。本文也分析支持調降年齡門檻之論據，如何從符合世界潮流、權利義務對等，到追求世代正義，等同於見證這三十年來臺灣的民主化以及社會變遷。而回顧降低投票年齡之倡議史，可促使我們進一步思考年齡門檻與各項選舉和公共事務決策之間的關係，以及未來應如何讓青少年有更多公共參與之機會。

Several constitutional amendments were ratified by the congress in Taiwan since the 1990s. The proposal of lowering the voting age, however, has remained an unfinished business over the past 25 years. Lowering the minimum voting age means giving the youth more rights to political participation to address its underrepresentation in the congress and unequal allocation of resources. This paper examines the legal history of advocacy for lowering the voting age in Taiwan, discourses of political parties and civic organizations, as well as actions for amending Article 130 of the Constitution and Article 7 of the Referendum Act. This paper also analyzes how these discourses have changed from“following the world trends,”“meeting equal rights and responsibilities”to pursuing“generational justice.”This paper concludes that an investigation into the legal history of lowering the voting age helps us to rethink the meaning of the minimum age threshold and its relationship with democracy and policy-making, and to seek future legal opportunities for the public participation of the youth.