El sufragio universal consiste en el derecho a voto de toda la población adulta de un Estado, independientemente de su raza, sexo, creencias o condición social. Habitualmente se refiere, de forma más concreta, a la extensión del voto a la población adulta femenina, aunque se ha dado el caso en algunos países que podían votar hombres y mujeres de raza blanca y el sufragio universal supuso extender ese derecho a otras razas. En 1789 el poder político comenzó a estar en manos de presidentes y cámaras de representantes, resultando necesario regular su sistema de elección. A lo largo de los siglos XIX y XX se fueron estableciendo sistemas electorales que comenzaron siendo muy restringidos y limitados a una élite, hasta establecer sistemas de reconocimiento universal del voto. Aunque no todos los países pasaron por las mismas etapas y restricciones, ni en el mismo orden, en términos generales el sufragio universal se estableció luego de una evolución a través de los siguientes sistemas: \n* sufragio censitario: en el votaban sólo hombres que cumpliesen una serie de requisitos de nivel de instrucción, de renta y de clase social; \n* sufragio masculino calificado: en el que podían votar todos los hombres que supieran leer y escribir; \n* sufragio femenino: reconociéndose el derecho a voto de las mujeres; \n* sufragio sin calificación: en el que se establece el derecho a voto de todas las personas, sin discriminar su nivel educativo, incluyendo a los analfabetos. \n* sufragio sin discriminación racial: se garantiza el derecho a voto de todas las personas, sin discriminación racial, ni de su pertenencia étnica u origen nacional.

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Universal suffrage (also general suffrage or common suffrage) consists of the right to vote of all except a small number of adult citizens (or subjects). Many countries make an exception for small numbers of adults that are considered mentally incapable of voting. Other countries also exclude people convicted of serious crimes or people in jail, but this is considered a violation of a basic human right in an increasing number of countries. In some countries, including the United States, it is very difficult and expensive for convicted criminals to regain this right even after having served their jail sentence. In any case, where universal suffrage exists, the right to vote is not restricted by race, sex, belief, wealth, or social status. Although it took or is taking a long time in many countries before women got/get the right to run for office even after getting the right to vote, there are still no commonly used clear terms to differentiate between these radically different rights. It is therefore usually best to avoid the little known and ambivalent terms used to make this distinction and to instead clearly say whether one is referring to only men or also women having only the right to vote or also the right to run for office. It is especially important to be careful in reading and using the term universal suffrage because it historically referred to only all adult males and even today is often used to refer to historical or contemporary situations in which women had/have the right to vote but not to run for office. The term active suffrage is sometimes used for the right to vote, passive suffrage for the right to run for office, and full suffrage for the combination of both. (The equivalent terms are more common in other languages than English.) The equivalent term when talking about both women and men would then be universal full suffrage, but the ambivalent term full universal suffrage is still often confusingly used to refer to the sometimes long periods when women had the right to vote but not the right to be elected. In addition, although active suffrage has two necessary components, namely the right to vote and opportunities to vote, the term universal (active) suffrage is associated only with the right to vote and ignores the frequency that an incumbent government consults the electorate. The First French Republic was the second nation that adopted universal male suffrage, doing so in 1792; it was one of the first national system that abolished all property requirements as a prerequisite for allowing men to register and vote. Greece recognized full male suffrage in 1830 and France and Switzerland have continuously done so since the 1848 Revolution (for resident male citizens). Upon independence in the 19th century, several Latin American countries and Liberia in Africa initially extented suffrage to all adult males, but subsequently restricted it based on property requirements. The German Empire implemented full male suffrage in 1871. The United States theoretically adopted full male suffrage with the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1870, but this was not practically implemented in the South until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1893, the self-governing colony New Zealand became the first country in the world (except for the short-lived 18th century Corsican Republic) to grant truly universal active suffrage by giving women the right to vote. It did not grant universal full suffrage (the right to both vote and be a candidate, which Finland granted in 1906) until 1919. In most countries, truly universal active suffrage (the right to vote but not necessarily the right to be a candidate) followed about a generation after universal male suffrage. Notable exceptions in Europe were France, where women could not vote until 1944, Greece (1952), and Switzerland (1971 in federal elections and 1990 in all cantonal elections). It is worth noting that countries that took a long time to adopt women's suffrage had previously often been pioneers in granting universal male suffrage. In 1906, the autonomous Grand Principality of Finland, which became the republic of Finland, was the first country in the world to implement truly universal full suffrage, i.e. the first country in the world to give women both the right to vote and to run for office. This made it the second country in the world and the first in Europe to give women the right to vote. The world's first female members of parliament were elected in Finland the following year. In the first modern democracies, governments restricted the vote to those with property and wealth, which almost always meant a minority of the male population. In some jurisdictions, other restrictions existed, such as requiring voters to practice a given religion. In all modern democracies, the number of people who could vote has increased progressively with time. In the 19th century in Europe, Great Britain and North America, there were movements advocating "universal [male] suffrage". The democratic movement of the late 19th century, unifying liberals and social democrats, particularly in northern Europe, used the slogan Equal and Common Suffrage. The concept of universal suffrage requires the right to vote to be granted to all its residents. All countries, however, do not allow certain categories of citizens to vote. All countries currently have a minimum age, usually coinciding with the age of majority, and several countries impose felony disenfranchisement and disfranchisement based on resident status and citizenship. Saudi Arabia was the last major country that did not allow women to vote, but admitted women both to voting and candidacy in the 2015 municipal elections.

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