The Right to Vote: A Speech on Danish Democracy

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The text below is a speech written to encourage a young group of students, who has, or son will be given the right to vote. They need to know the importance of that right and why to make sure to use it.

The right to vote is the right a single person or a group of people have to influence a government through decisions which need to be made when having a democracy. But it is only in the democratic governments the right to vote exists.

The first step towards the democracy we have today in Denmark and are so proud of was established when Frederik the 7th signed the Constitution in 1849. The Constitution relieved the king by 1665 citizens and marked the transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy and a democratic government.

However, at first it was only the nobility, who had the right to vote. But this changed gradually. More and more got the right to vote. Even though they did not have nearly as much money as the nobility, their vote was still just as influential.

Denmark was, after Finland (1906) and Norway (1913), the third nation in Europe where women got the right to vote. The year was 1915 and now the women finally had the chance to come out of the houses and vote for they had the right to do so. But they still had to satisfy requirements such as: being over 25 years of age, have a clean criminal record and not receiving any kind of economical support caused by poverty.