There are numerous examples of countries where the age required to be a candidate is higher than the age required to vote. In a survey done on data on thirty-six states obtained from the Inter-parliamentarian Union, VallÈs and Bosch show that this requirement exists in twenty-four of them: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Estonia, United States of America, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Nicaragua, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Uruguay and Venezuela.
It is usually justified as a demand for greater maturity, experience and judgement required in order to hold the office or representative post. In fact, although the reason is similar to that which was raised historically in support of restricted voting, socially speaking, this restriction is less disputed.
When it comes to the election of representatives of the upper house (in
two-chamber systems) or of a non-executive presidency, the reason for the age difference is often found, rather, in an effort to distinguish a function with very limited authority by strengthening the appearance of experience or moderating tendencies of those who might be elected.
