Suffrage (from the Latin suffragium, meaning "vote") is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. In that context, it is also called political franchise or simply the franchise, a term dating from the time when the Franks of ancient France were free. ------------------------------------------------------- Historically, many groups have been excluded from the right to vote, on various grounds, because their members were subjects of feudal kings or princes or otherwise not free men. Sometimes this exclusion was an explicit policy, clearly stated in the electoral laws; at other times it was implemented in practice by provisions that may seem to have little to do with the exclusion actually being implemented (e.g. poll taxes and literacy requirements used to keep emancipated slaves in the pre-Civil Rights Era American South from voting). In other cases, a group has been permitted to vote, but the electoral system or institutions of government gave their votes less influence than those of other groups. ------------------------------------------------------- The legitimacy of democratic government is usually considered to derive primarily from universal suffrage.----------------------------Universal suffrage is the term used to describe a situation in which the right to vote is not restricted by race, sex, belief or social status. It typically does not extend a right to vote to all citizens or residents of a region. Distinctions are frequently made in regard to nationality, age, and occasionally mental capacity or criminal convictions. -------------------------------------------- New Zealand was the first country to grant limited universal suffrage in 1893. Finland was the first European country to grant universal suffrage to its citizens in 1906, and the first country to make every citizen eligible to run for parliament.