In Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein describes a quasi-democratic political system, embedded in a militaristic government, in which veterans are the only people who are full citizens and, therefore, have the right to vote. The United States experienced a plague of youth crime in the 1950’s. Older generations believed that teeneagers were lazy, reckless, lacking discipline, disrespectful of authority, and violent. In response, the United States focused on progressive solutions such as prevention and rehabilitation. Heinlein’s novel is clearly a product of its time as he proposes a more direct solution to juvenile delinquency, while at the same time, criticizing democracy. Veterans are the only people who have the right to vote in Heinlein’s society because, unlike juveniles in the 1950’s, by serving in the federal service, veterans have proven that they are capable of making mature decisions that put the good of the society before themselves. However, this same reactionary means of establishing a voting populace can be seen in early American voting rights. As colonists asserted their rights over the tyrannical rule of King George III, they also showed us the way in which voting rights came from the small number of leaders who, at the time, determined the values of society. The examples of voting rights in Heinlein's work of science fiction, alongside these historical illustrations, reveals how quasi-democratic systems, established by small groups of similarly minded people, will disenfranchise large and significant portions of the population and ultimately lead to revolution.
The Terran Federation of Starship Troopers and the Founding Fathers of early American history show the challenges and pitfalls that can occur when establishing new governments based on democratic or quasi-democratic voting rights. Historically, political participation has been established in ways that disenfranchises a large portion of the population. As seen in Starship Troopers and early American history, political participation was established based on external qualifications determined by those in power, and to no surprise, qualifications oftentimes aligned with those in charge. This type of system disenfranchises such a large portion of the population that the government can no longer be representative of society or operate fairly. The Terran Federation, in Starship Troopers, grew out of disorder when “some veterans got together as vigilantes to stop rioting and looting, hanged a few people and decided not to let anyone but veterans on their committee….What started as an emergency measure became constitutional practice . . . in a generation or two” (Heinlein). From the very beginning of the Terran Federation, the right to vote was extremely restricted because the veterans did not trust anyone but themselves to make important decisions. Similarly, democracy and the current voting system in the United States also grew out of disorder and was led by a group of individuals who were very much the same and limited voting rights. The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were a group of predominantly wealthy plantation owners and businessmen who revolted against the rule of King George III and fought for independence from Britain. They united thirteen disparate colonies and authored a series of influential governing documents that continue to steer the country to this day. However, in the same way that the veterans in Starship Troopers did not allow anyone else to vote because they didn’t trust them, the Founding Fathers also limited who could vote by only giving the right to vote to those people that were similar to them. In the very first Presidential Election in 1789, Donald Ratcliffe notes in his article titled “The Right to Vote and the Rise of Democracy 1787-1828” that “as recently as September 2008 the distinguished historian Jill Lepore could write in the New Yorker that during Washington’s presidency only 6 percent of Americans could vote.” The Founding Fathers determined political participation in the 18th century based on external qualifiers such as property ownership and, in doing so, they disenfranchised a majority of the population. Veterans in Starship Troopers also disenfranchised portions of the population in the Terran Federation by implementing external qualifications such as serving in the military. However, the systems set up in Starship Troopers and early American history are not sustainable. The more groups of people who are given the right to vote, the more representative the government is of society, and the more successful and fair it will be.
Consider watching the video below. This video from TedEd elaborates on who got to vote in the very first presidential election and why they were chosen.
Starship Troopers provides an exaggerated illustration of the same qualifiers that were used in early American history to limit voting rights to those individuals deemed worthy by leadership, usually individuals who shared the same characteristics as the leaders were the people who were allowed to vote. In Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein describes a system in which veterans are the only people who are full citizens and, therefore, have the right to vote. The current system in the Terran Federation became constitutional practice and has not been replaced because it works satisfactorily, according to Major Reid, who is a History and Moral Philosophy professor. He says that the system works well not because the veterans are smarter than other people but because they have proven that “under [the] system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage” (Heinlein). Voting in early America was similar to the system Heinlein describes in Starship Troopers as voting rights in the 18th century were limited to a small group of people who could prove that they were qualified enough to make those decisions. As early as 1776, in a letter from John Adams to James Sullivan, John Adams wrote that “[s]uch is the Frailty of the human Heart, that few Men, who have no Property, have any judgement of their own.” In the United States, when the Federal Constitution was ratified in 1788, almost every state required some sort of property ownership and most oftentimes required ownership of a freehold estate in order to vote. Jacob Cogan explains the importance of the freehold estate in early America in his article titled “The Look within: Property, Capacity, and Suffrage in Nineteenth-Century America.” He notes that “a freehold demonstrated a permanent interest in the community and proved a person's disinterestedness and independence.” Robert Heinlein and early American decision makers, such as John Adams, shared many of the same opinions regarding voting rights. Both valued the idea that in order to vote, a person should be able to prove that they have sound judgement and are capable of making decisions that are good for the whole.
Although Heinlein had similar beliefs regarding voting rights as many of the early American political figures, his idealistic voting system described in Starship Troopers is far from the voting system the United States uses today. This is because political participation in the United States has been significantly expanded since the nation was founded. Expanded sovereignty has ultimately resulted from the fear of reprisals from disenfranchised groups of people. However, this is also exactly why the Terran Federation in Starship Troopers has not expanded voting rights. The veterans do not fear the non-veterans in the same way that politicians feared retaliation from minority groups in early American history. Heinlein argues that a system like that in the Terran Federation can work because those that disagree with it do not have the aggressiveness to fight against it. Major Reid asks his History and Moral Philosophy class why there has never been a revolution against the system despite the fact that every other government in history has had such. Ultimately he explains that “Because revolution—armed uprising—requires not only dissatisfaction but aggressiveness. A revolutionist has to be willing to fight and die—or he’s just a parlor pink. If you separate out the aggressive ones and make them the sheep dogs, the sheep will never give you trouble” (Heinlein). However, history has proven that this isn’t necessarily the case. The thirteen original colonies of the United States ultimately broke away from Britain because Parliament had rejected the idea of “no taxation without representation.” The colonial reaction ultimately set the stage for the American Independence Movement. Gordon Wood, author of The American Revolution: A History, says that “Americans in 1776 embarked on their experiment in republicanism in a spirit of risk and high excitement." The American Revolution began because King George would not give the colonists representation in Parliament. Furthermore, King George wasn’t afraid to disenfranchise the colonists because he didn’t think they would fight against him. In this same way, Heinlein’s Terran Federation does not believe people will rise up and fight against them because they are veterans. However, non-voting populations should not be underestimated. The colonists did fight back and the people of the Terran Federation can fight back because, as history has proven, you don’t have to be in a position of power to do so. The colonies that formed the Continental Army, were not aggressive people. The colonies joined in a united war effort to protect themselves. As George Washington once said, the goal of the Revolutionary war was “one people, embarked in one cause . . . and [devoted to] the same End." King George did not allow for representation, the equivalency of voting rights, precisely because he did not fear revolution. However, American History proves that Heinlein’s idealistic system of voting is not immune to revolution.
Similarly, this same idea of revolution can be applied to the expansion of voting rights throughout American history and the lack of expansion in Starship Troopers. Voting systems like those in Starship Troopers' Terran Federation and early America, disenfranchise such a significant and large portion of the population that the government cannot be representative of the society that it governs. For example, the civil unrest of the 1960’s led to the expansion of access to voting rights for various disenfranchised populations who were being made to pay poll taxes and take literacy tests. The Civil Rights Movement furthered voting rights through violent and aggressive actions in which disenfranchised groups of people took a stand and demanded change. Without expanded voting rights, democracies can expect that groups of underrepresented people will fight back against repression. Colonel DuBois, from Starship Troopers, says that “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms” (Heinlein). However, what Colonel DuBois fails to consider are those people who are disenfranchised by the very system that he is a part of. With the lack of expanded voting rights in Starship Troopers, veterans should expect violence and revolution from those whom they have oppressed. Considering the heightened and extended military conflict in which they find themselves in, veteran should be especially aware of the general population's disapproval of hyper militarization.
Heinlein, who published Starship Troopers in 1959, wrote about limiting voting rights at a time in which voting rights in the United States were still being expanded. Heinlein’s idealistic vision of citizenship and voting rights comes from his criticism of the United States’ response to juvenile delinquency in the 1950’s. Rather than moving towards progressive solutions, Heinlein proposes, through Starship Troopers, that the culture of the United States in the 1950’s was weak and perhaps that the United States should have adopted some sort of hyper militarization voting strategy to instill the population with proper morals and value. The idea that adult education is needed to help individuals ascend the maturity ladder to greater social responsibility can clearly be linked to Heinlein’s own idea of hierarchical moral behavior (Owenby 210). However, although Heinlein had similar beliefs regarding political participation as many of the early American political figures, his idealistic voting system described in Starship Troopers is far from the voting system the United States uses today. In voting systems like those in Starship Troopers’ Terran Federation and early America, disenfranchisement occurs so much so that the government can not be representative of society. Ultimately, when so many significant groups of people are disenfranchised by one, smaller group of people, a government can not govern effectively or fairly and, as history has proven, it will lead to revolution.
Adams, John. “From John Adams to James Sullivan, 26 May 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0091. Accessed 14 Oct. 2020.
Barnosky, Jason. “The Violent Years: Responses to Juvenile Crime in the 1950s.” Polity, vol. 38, no. 3, 2006, pp. 314–344. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3877070. Accessed 26 Oct. 2020.
Cogan, Jacob Katz. “The Look within: Property, Capacity, and Suffrage in Nineteenth-Century America.” The Yale Law Journal, vol. 107, no. 2, 1997, pp. 473–498. JSTOR,www.jstor.org/stable/7972620. Accessed 14 Oct. 2020.
Heinlein, Robert A. Starship Troopers. Ace Books, 2010.
Johnson, Herbert A. “American Constitutionalism and the War for Independence.” Early American Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, 2016, pp. 140–173. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44630818. Accessed 14 Oct. 2020.
Owenby, Phillip H. "Robert A. Heinlein: Popular Adult Educator and Philosopher of Education, The University of Tennessee, Ann Arbor, 1996. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/304271094?accountid=27203. Accessed 26 Oct. 2020.
Ratcliffe, Donald. “The Right to Vote and the Rise of Democracy, 1787—1828.” Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 33, no. 2, 2013, pp. 219–254. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24768843. Accessed 14 Oct. 2020.
Steinfeld, Robert J. “Property and Suffrage in the Early American Republic.” Stanford Law Review, vol. 41, no. 2, 1989, pp. 335–376. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1228746 . Accessed 14 Oct. 2020.
Wood, Gordon S. The American Revolution: A History. Random House, 2003.