Capacity-testing as a means of increasing political inclusion

Some competent political actors, primarily young people and the cognitively impaired, are excluded from political participation by modern liberal democratic states. This exclusion occurs because the means utilized by states to distinguish between competent citizens (who must be included) and incompetent ones (who may be excluded) are imperfect. They include age restrictions on enfranchisement and, commonly, legal restrictions on enfranchisement for those with cognitive disabilities. Capacity-testing provides a means to improve on these existing mechanisms for exclusion. It is not, however, often suggested, nor seen as viable. Here, I argue that we should utilize capacity-testing to more effectively include capable citizens in our democratic practice. I defend a particular scope and kind of capacity-testing against common objections

POLITICAL INCLUSION AS A MEANS OF GENERATING JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN

Neste artigo argumenta-se que a posição das crianças pode ser melhorada se lhes for concedida representação política, mediante a sua inclusão nos processos democráticos. A inclusão das crianças como participantes iguais nos processos democráticos provavelmente atenuará as desvantagens estruturais a que estão sujeitas nas democracias contemporâneas. As instituições políticas e sociais terão maiores incentivos para agir de forma proactiva no sentido de apoiar as crianças, e as crianças terão a mesma capacidade dos demais cidadãos para exprimirem a sua aprovação ou rejeição em relação às ações públicas realizadas em seu nome. Num ambiente global ainda caracterizado principalmente por estados-nação independentes, as democracias oferecem o solo mais fértil para a criação de instituições justas. Essas instituições funcionam primacialmente para os que mais participam na democracia. As crianças estão, em todos os estados, expressamente excluídas da participação política ativa, e, nessa medida, as suas vozes, desejos, necessidades e direitos são marginalizados. A inclusão política das crianças é um primeiro passo para solucionar esta marginalizaçãoIn this article it is argued that the position of children can be improved by ensuring them political representation, through inclusion in democratic processes. Embedding children as equal participants in democratic processes is likely to diminish the structural disadvantages to which they are currently subjected within modern democracies. Political and social institutions will have greater incentives to act proactively to support children, and children will have the same ability as other citizens to express their approval or disapproval of public actions undertaken on their behalf. In a global environment still characterised primarily by independent nation states, democracies provide the most fertile ground for the generation of just institutions. Those institutions work best, for the most active participants in the democracy. Children are, in all states, expressly excluded from active political participation, and as such their voices, desires, needs and rights are marginalised. Political inclusion for children is a first step to address this marginalisation

Political inclusion as a means of generating Justice for children

I argue that the position of children can be improved by ensuring them political representation, through inclusion in democratic processes. Embedding children as equal participants in democratic processes is likely to diminish the structural disadvantages to which they are currently subjected within modern democracies. Political and social institutions will have greater incentives to act proactively to support children, and children will have the same ability as other citizens to express their approval or disapproval of public actions undertaken on their behalf. In a global environment still characterised primarily by independent nation states, democracies provide the most fertile ground for the generation of just institutions. Those institutions work best, for the most active participants in the democracy. Children are, in all states, expressly excluded from active political participation, and as such their voices, desires, needs and rights are marginalised. Political inclusion for children is a first step to address this marginalisation

Ein wahleignungstest für minderjährige?

In der modernen demokratischen Praxis gelten Alphabetisierungstests und andere Mechanismen, um Bürgerinnen und Bürger vom aktiven Wahlrecht auszuschließen, weithin und zurecht als verpönt. Dennoch scheinen zumindest einige Testformen ein probates Mittel darzustellen, um die Urteilsfähigkeit von Menschen mit bestimmten Defiziten zu erfassen. Der Beitrag diskutiert einen Vorschlag für ein Eignungstestregime, welches nur auf gegenwärtig von politischer Beteiligung ausgeschlossene junge Menschen angewendet wird, und setzt sich mit einer Reihe von Einwänden gegen einen solchen Vorschlag auseinander. Zuletzt macht er geltend, dass ein Eignungstestregime sowohl für die solcherart einbezogenen Individuen als auch für die demokratischen Staaten, die es implementieren würden, von Vorteil wäre

[n] infants, [n] votes

The inclusive presumption suggests that we should only disenfranchise those whose inclusion will undermine democratic values. Most people think we ought not to enfranchise infants. What harm would enfranchised infants do to our democratic institutions? At worst, they would systematically vote badly, choosing the worst of the available options. More plausibly, they would (mostly) fail to cast valid votes, and those who did successfully cast ballots would select randomly among the available options (as do some enfranchised adults). Neither of these possibilities provides good reason to disenfranchise them. I argue that in a well-constructed democratic system, the inclusion of infants (and all other currently disenfranchised citizens) will on balance be positive. To the extent that in extant democratic systems, enfranchising infants will do harm, that is an issue not with the infants, but with the system, and ought to be addressed from that side

Democracy without voting

Both epistocrats and lottocrats claim that democracy itself is problematic. They set themselves the task of providing a plausible alternative system. However, many of the problems they identify arise not from democracy as such, but from certain instantiations of it. When and how people vote; how many people choose not to vote; and how much the people who do vote know, are all subjects of criticism in this literature. In this paper I outline a democratic system which retains features such as majority rule and secrecy regarding the expressed preferences of citizens, but eliminates voting. I argue that this approach can achieve many of the benefits ascribed to epistocratic or lottocratic systems without importing their flaws

The Trap of Incrementalism in the Political Inclusion of Children.

Thirty years on from the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the international norm for the age of political majority remains set at 18 years of age. With few exceptions, those under 18 are denied access to the single most important component of formal political participation – the right to vote in elections (whether local or national). Practical efforts have primarily been focused on the incremental inclusion of older children into the franchise, via attempts to lower the voting age to sixteen. Theoretical arguments, by contrast, have defended a much more expansive position on the inclusion of children, whether lowering the age to 14, 12, or even eliminating age limits entirely. In this paper, I explore the gap between practice and theory. I argue that proponents of children’s enfranchisement should commit to arguing, at the practical level, for drastic changes to our democratic systems, so as, if successful, to enfranchise all those children who have a strong claim to political inclusion, rather than merely those closest to 18 years of age. Such a commitment to the theoretically more defensible (although politically less likely) positions could work to the advantage of children, by making moves such as the lowering of the voting age into the reasonable compromise position, rather than an extreme to be opposed

Technology as cause of and solution to the empathy problem

For decades, Sherry Turkle has explored the risks and opportunities of technology for people, relationships, and society. In The Second Self (1984), Turkle emphasised the positive potential of digital technologies and computer games. But since then, her work has increasingly documented the risks of technology as they have crystallised into tangible harms. Culminating in her recent memoir, The Empathy Diaries (2021), Turkle’s oeuvre is best viewed as a warning that our increasing use of ICTs, and reliance on smartphones in particular, is causing usto become less empathetic.Here,we acknowledge Turkle’s warning and use her own earlier technological optimism to investigate potential technological solutions to the emerging empathy problem

Good friendships improve our lives. But can virtual friendships be good?

Good friendships improve our lives. But philosophers, psychologists, and other social scientists disagree about the nature of friendship and the value of virtual friendships. Recent technological advances and global crises highlight the importance of answering the question: can virtual friendships be good? We argue against accounts of friendship that suggest virtual relationships are necessarily deficient, focusing on rejecting the requirements of physical proximity and complete authenticity for friendship. We propose a more inclusive account of friendship that focusses on positive intentions and experiences. We also discuss examples of virtual friendships that highlight their advantages in modern times, especially their ability to promote intercultural cohesion. Finally, we suggest implications to help guide individual and collective decisions about friendship in a way that improves wellbeing

The Milky Way Tomography with SDSS: III. Stellar Kinematics

We study Milky Way kinematics using a sample of 18.8 million main-sequence stars with r<20 and proper-motion measurements derived from SDSS and POSS astrometry, including ~170,000 stars with radial-velocity measurements from the SDSS spectroscopic survey. Distances to stars are determined using a photometric parallax relation, covering a distance range from ~100 pc to 10 kpc over a quarter of the sky at high Galactic latitudes (|b|>20 degrees). We find that in the region defined by 1 kpc <Z< 5 kpc and 3 kpc <R< 13 kpc, the rotational velocity for disk stars smoothly decreases, and all three components of the velocity dispersion increase, with distance from the Galactic plane. In contrast, the velocity ellipsoid for halo stars is aligned with a spherical coordinate system and appears to be spatially invariant within the probed volume. The velocity distribution of nearby ($Z<1$ kpc) K/M stars is complex, and cannot be described by a standard Schwarzschild ellipsoid. For stars in a distance-limited subsample of stars (<100 pc), we detect a multimodal velocity distribution consistent with that seen by HIPPARCOS. This strong non-Gaussianity significantly affects the measurements of the velocity ellipsoid tilt and vertex deviation when using the Schwarzschild approximation. We develop and test a simple descriptive model for the overall kinematic behavior that captures these features over most of the probed volume, and can be used to search for substructure in kinematic and metallicity space. We use this model to predict further improvements in kinematic mapping of the Galaxy expected from Gaia and LSST.Comment: 90 pages, 26 figures, submitted to Ap