Universal suffrage - Encyclopedia

Universal suffrage (also general suffrage or common suffrage) consists of the extension of suffrage, or the right to vote, to all adults, without distinction as to race, sex, belief, or social status.

In the first modern democracies only a limited number of people had a say in the running of the government - for example in Britain only landowners had the right to vote from 1265. In all modern democracies the number of people who could vote increased gradually with time. The 19th century featured movements advocating universal male suffrage - the extension to all males regardless of class or race. The democratic movement of the late 19th century, unifying Liberals and Social Democrats, particularly in northern Europe, used the slogan Equal and Common Suffrage. The Movement for Universal Suffrage consisted of a social, economic and political movement aimed at extending suffrage to people of all races.

States have granted (and revoked) universal suffrage at various times:
(in chronological order)

• New Jersey -- 1776 – 1807 (property requirement; but enforcement disputed)
• Paris Commune of 1871 --(lasted only 2 months, but was the first of its kind)
• New Zealand -- 1893 (although certain inequalities with Maori votes persisted)
• South Australia -- 1894
• Grand Duchy of Finland -- 1906 as an autonomous Grand Duchy. (Finland became independent in 1917)
• Norway -- 1913
• Denmark -- 1915 (with Iceland)
• Russia -- 1917
• Finland -- 1917 - As an independent republic after the Declaration of Independence by the 1906 decision of Universal Suffrage.
• Canada -- 1918 (last province to enact women's suffrage was Quebec in 1940; status Indians gained the right to vote in 1960)
• Estonia -- 1918
• Ireland -- 1918
• After the Central Powers' defeat in World War I
  • Austria -- 1918
  • Czechoslovakia - 1918
  • Germany -- 1918
  • Hungary -- 1918
  • Poland -- 1919
• Luxembourg - 1919
• The Netherlands - 1919
• United States -- 1920 (though unenforced with regards to African Americans in the South until 1965)
• Sweden -- 1921
• Lithuania -- 1922
• Romania -- 1923
• United Kingdom -- 1928
• Sri Lanka (as Ceylon) -- 1931 (Indian Tamils disenfranchised 1949)
• Spain -- 1931 (revoked during Franco era, 1939-1975)
• Turkey -- 1934
• France -- 1944
• Italy -- 1945
• Japan -- 1945
• Israel -- 1948
• Belgium -- 1948
• India -- 1950 (as part of its constitution)
• Argentina -- 1951
• Greece -- 1952
• Malaysia -- 1955 (The victory of Union Party convinces the British to grant Malaysia's Independence in 1957)
• Colombia -- 1956
• Australia -- 1962 (previously not granted to Aborigines at the federal level)
• Switzerland -- 1971 (introduction of women's suffrage at the federal level; for cantonal elections this was not completed until 1990)
• Portugal -- 1976
• Liechtenstein -- 1984
• South Africa -- 1994 (white women's suffrage in 1930)
• Iraq -- 2005

• List of democracy and elections-related topics

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Universal suffrage", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page