Legal Definitions - enfranchisement

Enfranchisement refers to the act of granting significant rights or freedoms to an individual or a group of people who previously did not possess them.

Most commonly, it refers to the extension of voting rights or other fundamental rights of citizenship. Historically, it also described the act of freeing someone from slavery or servitude.

• Example 1: After decades of advocacy and protest, the enfranchisement of women in the United States was achieved with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. This amendment prohibited states and the federal government from denying citizens the right to vote based on sex.

  Explanation: This illustrates enfranchisement as the granting of a fundamental right – the right to vote – to a specific class of persons (women) who were previously excluded from it.

• Example 2: Following the end of apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s, the Black majority population experienced widespread enfranchisement. This included not only the right to vote in national elections but also full access to public services, property ownership, and equal legal standing, which had been systematically denied under the previous regime.

  Explanation: Here, enfranchisement encompasses the granting of a broad range of citizenship rights and freedoms, including voting rights, to a large group of people who were previously oppressed and denied these basic entitlements.

• Example 3: The passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865 led to the enfranchisement of millions of enslaved people, formally abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude across the nation.

  Explanation: This example highlights the historical meaning of enfranchisement as the act of making free, specifically liberating individuals from the condition of slavery and granting them fundamental personal liberty.