Though contemporary Western democracies are clearly marvels by any historical standard, they suffer from one clear, grievous flaw – children cannot vote.
Last December the head of politics at Cambridge University invited ridicule when he suggested that this wound required bandages. On his podcast Professor David Runciman mused:
‘I would lower the voting age to six, not 16… it would make elections more fun. It is never going to happen in a million years but as a way of capturing just how structurally unbalanced our democracies have become, seriously, why not? Why not six-year-olds?'
Why not indeed? Why not live in a world where the most effective retail politicians are not Obamas and Trumps, but Barney the Dinosaur and Kermit the Frog? Most political communications today probably would make more sense if they were performed by puppets made out of green felt. Six-year-olds would vote for them in droves.
Surely Vladimir Putin would finally meet his match if he were confronted by President Bert and Vice President Ernie at the next G20 summit. And who can really say if the Iranian leadership is more intimidated by John Bolton or Dora the Explorer?
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