Suffrage
Suffrage is the right to vote in an election. An important type of suffrage is universal suffrage, when all adults in a country have the right to vote without distinction by race, sex, belief, or wealth. Although it has not always been viewed as important to democracy, in the early twenty-first century many regard universal suffrage as an essential component of democracy. In fact, suffrage may be viewed as a minimum standard for democracy since the right of individuals to vote is presupposed in a requirement of competitive elections. Some of the largest social movements in history have centered on extending suffrage to disenfranchised groups (e.g., the international women's suffrage movement and the civil rights movement in the United States). Even countries that do not have other features of democracy tend to hold elections in which all or most citizens can vote. Universal suffrage has become the global ideal if not completely the norm.
Suffrage Over Time and Across Countries
Many individuals may take the right to vote for granted. But the right to vote was denied to many people in the past, and continues to be denied to groups of people in some countries. Sometimes, the exclusion of groups of individuals is written explicitly into electoral laws.
