Generating justice for children via political inclusion

Abstract

I argue that the global position of children can be improved by first ensuring them political representation, through inclusion in democratic process from a young age. Once children are embedded as equal participants in democratic processes, the structural disadvantages they are currently subject to within modern democracies are likely to diminish. Political and social institutions will have greater incentives to act proactively to support children, and children will have the same ability as other citizens to express their approval or disapproval of public actions undertaken on their behalf. The argument is as follows: In a global environment still characterised primarily by independent nation states, democracies provide the most fertile ground for the generation of just institutions. Those institutions work best, for those who are the most active participants in the democracy. Children are, in all states, expressly excluded from active political participation, and as such their voices, desires, needs and rights are marginalised. Political inclusion for children is a first step to address this marginalisation.