Older Voters Rule in Rich Nations --- As people live longer and birthrates drop, seniors gain more political clout

"SEOUL -- On the surface, South Korea's legislative election this week looks much like past votes. Candidates are holding rallies and parties are engaging in mudslinging.

But there will be a new wrinkle when South Koreans head to the polls Wednesday: The number of eligible older voters, for the first time, will outnumber those under 40.

Roughly 32% of the electorate is 60 or older, vs. less than 31% who are younger than 40, according to government data. That is a big shift from 2008, when younger voters outnumbered seniors by a margin of more than 2 to 1.

The graying of electorates -- and the officials who represent them -- is becoming common in advanced economies, as people live longer and birthrates drop. The world's 10 largest countries by population now have leaders older than 70.

The advancing age of voters has raised concerns that governments, backed by bigger blocs of seniors, will give priority to programs geared toward the elderly at the expense of public spending meant to benefit younger people. 

Some academics have called for overhauling how democratic governments are structured to ensure better representation for young and old.

Voters in many countries, particularly the wealthy democracies, are aging. That will be on display in this major political year, when about four billion people, or roughly half the world's population, are participating in dozens of elections -- from the U.S. to India to the U.K.

South Korea, home to the industrialized world's lowest birthrate for the past decade, offers an early glimpse at the collision between demographics and democracy.

On Wednesday, the country votes on all 300 seats in its unicameral National Assembly. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is limited by law to a single five-year term that ends in 2027, hopes his ruling conservatives regain majority control of the legislature. Older voters in South Korea skew to the political right, though polls show a tight race.

"I fear that I'll be living in a society where political power and welfare benefits will all be dominated by the older generation," said 31-year-old Lee Ji-ae. She is concerned about projections that the national pension fund will run out of money by the time she retires.

South Korea has fewer young legislators than almost any other country in the world, with about 4% of them 40 and under, placing it in 142nd place out of 147 nations, according to a report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. In the U.S., which ranked slightly higher at 122, roughly 10% of legislators are under 40.

South Korea's two major parties haven't directed much of their campaigning toward younger citizens, despite their potential allure as swing voters. Younger people recently have shown more allegiance to individual policies than partisanship, said Heo Jin-jae, of Gallup Korea, who researches public opinion.

Younger voters in the U.S. also are experiencing a disconnect from their representatives. The two major presidential candidates in November's elections -- 81-year-old President Biden and 77-year-old Donald Trump -- are decades older than they are. The median age of U.S. senators is 65.

Millennials and Gen-Z voters will represent 48.5% of the eligible electorate this fall, according to census data analyzed by researchers Mike Hais and Morley Winograd.

"If you look at what Congress has done in this world, they continue to spend, reinforce and help programs for senior citizens at the expense of doing something dramatic for younger people," said Winograd, who, with Hais, has written three books on millennials and politics. Younger Americans show more interest in third parties or abstaining from voting, they said.

The world has never before witnessed a moment where older people have begun outnumbering younger ones, meaning many democracies are becoming "gerontocracies," said Yosuke Buchmeier, a research associate at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, who recently co-wrote a paper titled, "The Aging Democracy."

With elected officials already much older than the population average in many countries, younger voters globally have become disenfranchised, apathetic and underrepresented in legislatures, he said.

The very notion of "one person, one vote" in democratic political systems may need to be rethought as seniors come to dominate voting bases, he added. Proposals range from offering young parents extra votes for their children to establishing a "generational election system," in which each age bracket gets a confined number of legislators to ensure population-wide representation.

"We will see more aging democracies in the future," Buchmeier said. "The question is, who is democracy for and how can democracy really reform itself?"" [1]

Dear Lithuanian retires, you have the power. Kick out of office all those stupid, uncultured babies, like Šimonytė, Anušauskas, Landsbergis, Armonaitė, Nausėda, who are playing with expensive useless tanks. Let's elect people who will spend our limited money for pensions of those, who build Lithuania. They are playing, you are starving. What a nonsense is this?

1. World News: Older Voters Rule in Rich Nations --- As people live longer and birthrates drop, seniors gain more political clout. Martin, Timothy W; Yoon, Dasl.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 10 Apr 2024: A.7.