Editing Universal suffrage (section)

==History==
[[File:Election MG 3455.JPG|thumb|Voting is an important part of the formal [[democratic process]].]]
[[File:Hemicycle of Louise Weiss building of the European Parliament, Strasbourg.jpg|thumb|The [[European Parliament]] is the only international organ elected with universal suffrage (since 1979).]]
In the first modern democracies, governments restricted the vote to those with property and wealth, which almost always meant a minority of the male population.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Athenian Democracy |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Athenian_Democracy/ |access-date=21 May 2020 |website=[[World History Encyclopedia]]}}</ref> In some jurisdictions, other restrictions existed, such as requiring voters to practice a given religion.<ref>{{Cite web |title=America's True History of Religious Tolerance |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/ |access-date=21 May 2020 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> In all modern democracies, the number of people who could vote has increased progressively with time.<ref name="Caramani">{{Cite book |last=Caramani |first=Daniele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6UUfDgAAQBAJ&q=universal+male+suffrage&pg=PA53 |title=Elections in Western Europe 1815–1996 |date=13 February 2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-65508-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Constitutional Rights Foundation |url=https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-8-1-b-who-voted-in-early-america |access-date=21 May 2020 |website=www.crf-usa.org}}</ref> The 19th century saw many movements advocating "universal [male] suffrage", most notably in Europe and North America.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 May 2017 |title=White Manhood Suffrage |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/democracy-exhibition/vote-voice/getting-vote/demanding-vote/white-manhood-suffrage |access-date=21 May 2020 |website=National Museum of American History |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Caramani" /> Female suffrage was largely ignored until the latter half of the century, when movements began to thrive; the first of these was in New Zealand, in which all adult women of all ethnicities gained the right to vote in 1893.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=McLintock |first1=Alexander Hare |last2=Patricia Ann Grimshaw |first2=M. A. |last3=Taonga |first3=New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu |title=WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/womens-suffrage-movement |access-date=2022-02-18 |website=An encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, 1966. |language=en}}</ref> A year later, South Australia granted all citizens the right to vote and stand for election, making it the first place in the world where women could stand as candidates for election to parliament. From there, this groundbreaking reform set a precedent for broader suffrage rights worldwide. However, voting rights were often limited to those of the dominant ethnicity.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pickles |first=Katie |title=NZ was first to grant women the vote in 1893, but then took 26 years to let them stand for parliament |url=http://theconversation.com/nz-was-first-to-grant-women-the-vote-in-1893-but-then-took-26-years-to-let-them-stand-for-parliament-123467 |access-date=2022-02-18 |website=The Conversation |date=18 September 2019 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=SA |first=Department of Human Services |title=The South Australian women's suffrage campaign |url=https://officeforwomen.sa.gov.au/womens-policy/125th-anniversary-of-suffrage/the-south-australian-womens-suffrage-campaign |access-date=2022-02-18 |website=officeforwomen.sa.gov.au |language=en-AU}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grimshaw |first=Patricia |date=2000 |title=Settler Anxieties, Indigenous Peoples, and Women's Suffrage in the Colonies of Australia, New Zealand, and Hawai'i, 1888 to 1902 |journal=Pacific Historical Review |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=553–572 |doi=10.2307/3641224 |issn=0030-8684 |jstor=3641224}}</ref>

In the United States, after the principle of "[[One person, one vote]]" was established in the early 1960s by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] under [[Earl Warren]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goldman |first=Ari L. |date=21 November 1986 |title=One Man, One Vote: Decades of Court Decisions |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/21/nyregion/one-man-one-vote-decades-of-court-decisions.html |access-date=14 January 2020 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pederson |first=William D. |title=Earl Warren |url=https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1370/earl-warren |access-date=14 January 2020 |website=www.mtsu.edu |language=en}}</ref> the [[U.S. Congress]], together with the [[Warren Court]], continued to protect and expand the [[Voting rights in the United States|voting rights of all Americans]], especially African Americans, through the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] and several Supreme Court rulings.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=We Shall Overcome – The Players |url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/prize.htm |access-date=5 October 2019 |website=www.nps.gov}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections |url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1965/48 |access-date=5 October 2019 |website=Oyez |language=en}}</ref> In addition, the term "[[suffrage]]" is also associated specifically with [[women's suffrage in the United States]]; a movement to extend the franchise to women began in the mid-19th century and culminated in 1920,{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} when the United States ratified the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], guaranteeing the right of women to vote.<ref>{{Cite web |title=19th Amendment |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxix |access-date=24 May 2019 |website=LII / Legal Information Institute |language=en}}</ref> It would be 1928 before voting rights were guaranteed to all women in the [[United Kingdom|UK]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women Get The Vote |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/thevote/ |website=parliament.uk}}</ref>

=== In more detail ===
France, under the [[French Constitution of 1793|1793 Jacobin constitution]], was the first major country to enact suffrage for all adult males, though it was never formally used in practice (the constitution was immediately suspended before being implemented, and the [[1795 French Directory election|subsequent election]] occurred in 1795 after the [[Thermidorian Reaction|fall of the Jacobin government]] in 1794 discredited most ideas associated with them, including that constitution). Elsewhere in the [[Francophone]] world, the [[Republic of Haiti]] legislated for universal male suffrage in 1816.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Dubois
 | first1 = Laurent
 | author-link1 = Laurent Dubois
 | title = Haiti: The Aftershocks of History
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=drU3HlesN5kC
 | location = New York
 | publisher = Henry Holt and Company
 | date = 2012
 | pages = 60–61
 | isbn = 9780805095623
 | access-date = 19 September 2019
| quote = In 1816, the Republic of Haiti put into place a new constitution [...]. The creation of the Chamber of Deputies was a significant advance for democratic government: the deputies were elected by universal male suffrage, with no restrictions on the right to vote [...].
}}
</ref> The [[Second French Republic]] instituted adult male suffrage after the [[French Revolution of 1848|revolution of 1848]].<ref name="Caramani" />

Following the French revolutions, movements in the Western world toward more universal suffrage occurred in the early 19th century, and focused on removing property requirements for voting. In 1867 Germany (the [[North German Confederation]]) enacted suffrage for all adult males. In the United States following the [[American Civil War]], slaves were freed and [[Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States|granted rights of citizens]], including [[Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States|suffrage for adult males]] (although several states established restrictions largely, though not completely, diminishing these rights). In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the focus of the [[Women's suffrage|universal suffrage movement]] came to include the extension of the [[Women's suffrage|right to vote to women]], as happened from the post-Civil War era in several Western [[States of the United States|states]] and during the 1890s in a number of British colonies.

On 19 September 1893 the British Governor of New Zealand, [[David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow|Lord Glasgow]], gave assent to a new electoral act, which meant that New Zealand became the first British-controlled colony in which women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage|title= new zealand women and the vote|website= nzhistory.govt.nz|access-date= 30 June 2019}}</ref> This was followed shortly after by the colony of [[South Australia]] in 1894, which was the second to allow women to vote, but the first colony to permit women to stand for election as well.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/womens-suffrage|title=Women's suffrage|access-date=1 December 2019}}</ref> In 1906, the autonomous Russian territory known as [[Grand Duchy of Finland]] (which became the Republic of Finland in 1917) became the first territory in the world to implement unrestricted universal suffrage, as women could stand as candidates, unlike in New Zealand, and without indigenous ethnic exclusion, like in Australia. It also lead to the election of the world's first female members of parliament [[1907 Finnish parliamentary election|the following year]].<ref name="eduskunta.fi">{{Cite web|url=https://www.eduskunta.fi/EN/tietoaeduskunnasta/historia/Pages/default.aspx|title=Eduskunnan lyhyt historia|website=www.eduskunta.fi}}</ref><ref name="web.archive.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aanioikeus.fi/en/articles/strike.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720175612/http://www.aanioikeus.fi/en/articles/strike.htm|archive-date=20 July 2011|title=Centenary of women's full political rights in Finland|date=20 July 2011}}</ref> Federal states and colonial or autonomous territories prior to [[World War I]] have multiple examples of early introduction of universal suffrage. However, these legal changes were effected with the permission of the British, Russian or other government bodies, which were considered the sovereign nation at the time. For this reason, Australia (1901), New Zealand (1908) and Finland (1917) all have different dates of achieving independent nationhood.

[[File:Léon Bienvenu - Le Suffrage universel.jpg|thumb|Satirical drawing by [[Touchatout]] depicting the birth of universal suffrage, "one of the most sacred rights of Man, born in France on 24 february 1848."]]
The [[First French Republic]] adopted universal male suffrage briefly in 1792; it was one of the first national systems that abolished all property requirements as a prerequisite for allowing men to register and vote. Greece recognized full male suffrage in 1844.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Greece|title=Greece – Building the nation, 1832–1913|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=25 June 2023 }}</ref> Spain recognized it in the [[Spanish Constitution of 1869|Constitution of 1869]] and France and Switzerland have continuously done so since the [[1848 Revolution]] (for resident male citizens). Upon independence in the 19th century, several Latin-American countries and Liberia in Africa initially extended suffrage to all adult males, but subsequently restricted it based on property requirements. The [[German Empire]] implemented full male suffrage in 1871.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iub.edu/~paris10/ParisOSS/Day10_Sex_and_Gender/d7_Offen.html|title=Karen Offen, "Women, Citizenship, and Suffrage in France Since 1789"|website=www.iub.edu|access-date=21 December 2019|archive-date=1 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200401105757/http://www.iub.edu/~paris10/ParisOSS/Day10_Sex_and_Gender/d7_Offen.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the United States, the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], ratified in 1870 during the [[Reconstruction era]], provided that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." This amendment aimed to guarantee the right to vote to African Americans, many of whom had been [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved]] in the [[Southern United States|South]] prior to the end (1865) of the [[American Civil War]] and the 1864–1865 [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|abolition of slavery]]. Despite the amendment, however, [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|blacks were disfranchised]] in the former Confederate states [[Compromise of 1877|after 1877]]; Southern officials ignored the amendment and blocked black citizens from voting through a variety of devices, including [[Poll taxes in the United States|poll taxes]], [[literacy tests]], and [[grandfather clause]]s;<ref name="Davidson">Chandler Davidson, "The Recent Evolution of Voting Rights Law Affecting Racial and Language Minorities"  in ''Quiet Revolution in the South: The Impact of the Voting Rights Act, 1965–1990'' (Princeton University Press, 1994: eds. Chandler Davidson & Bernard Grofman), pp. 21–22.</ref> violence and [[Terrorism in the United States|terrorism]] were used to intimidate some would-be voters.<ref>Gary Gershman, "Fifteenth Amendment (1870)" in ''Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic'' (eds. Charles A. Gallagher, Cameron D. Lippard), pp. 441–43.</ref> Southern blacks did not effectively receive the right to vote until the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]].<ref name="Davidson"/>

In 1893 the self-governing colony New Zealand became the first country in the world (except for the short-lived 18th-century [[Corsican Republic]]) to grant active universal suffrage by giving women the right to vote. It did not grant universal full suffrage (the right to both vote and be a candidate, or both active and passive suffrage) until 1919.<ref name="Nohlen" />

In 1902, the Commonwealth of Australia became the first country to grant full suffrage for women, i.e. the rights both to vote and to run for office.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-suffragettes |title=Australian suffragettes |access-date=17 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310153450/http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-suffragettes |archive-date=2016-03-10}}</ref> However, Australia did not implement universal suffrage at this time – nationwide voting rights for [[Aboriginal Australians]] were not established until 1962, before that varying by state.

Many societies in the past have denied or abridged political representation on the basis of race or ethnicity, related to discriminatory ideas about [[Non-citizen suffrage|citizenship]]. For example, in [[apartheid]]-era South Africa, non-White people could generally not vote in national elections until the first [[1994 South African general election|multi-party elections in 1994]]. However, a nonracial franchise existed under the [[Cape Qualified Franchise]], which was replaced by a number of [[Coloured vote constitutional crisis|separate MPs]] in 1936 (Blacks) and 1958 (Coloureds). Later, the [[Tricameral Parliament]] established separate chambers for Whites, Coloureds and Indians. Rhodesia enacted a similar statute to the former in [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|its proclaimed independence]] of 1965, which however allowed a smaller number of representatives for the considerably larger Black majority (under its 1961 constitution, the voting classes had been based on socio-economic standards, which marginalized most Black and a few White voters to a separate set of constituencies, under the principle of [[weighted voting]]; this was replaced in 1969 by an explicitly racial franchise, with delegated all Blacks to the 'B' voters roll).