Age of members of the House of Citizens

[Lars Næsbye Christensen]

In Progress Report 15, the FAEF board asks for comments on the eligibility of legislators and the allowed age.

I fully back the notion that anyone at age 18 should have suffrage and decide on the composition of the House of Citizens through voting rights. If you are old enough to be given an assault rifle to use deadly force and to be legally responsible for your actions under penalty of law, then you are old enough to be heard through your vote in a representative system that collectively makes these laws. As a teenager I may have had my share of escapades in other ways, but my political compass was remarkably non-extremist and careful compared to my older self.

But voting for a representative is not the same as being that representative who will have to make the law. The argument for setting the eligibility age to 25 would often be something about the prefrontal cortex not having been fully developed until about that age (for men, that is. Women’s prefrontal cortex are usually developed earlier). And since the pre-frontal cortex is used for processes like considerations of long-term consequences one could argue that 25 is a good minimum age.

On the other hand we already have the House of States with a minimum age of 30 to serve as a brake for legislation that might be rushed and without consideration for the long-term consequences.

Could we then perhaps reach a compromise between 18 and 25 for the minimum age for the House of Citizens at 20?

Or, since we are in the creative process of making a federation, could we come up with better parameters than accumulated life years?

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