Age and politics
Bidadanure chap. 7, "Youth-ing Politics"
Young people vote less -- LINK
Age of US leaders -- LINK
Terminology
- De facto -- exclusion just as a matter of fact
- De jure -- exclusion by law (age requirements for house, senate, president)
Why is age-based exclusion problematic?
- "does not necessarily flout the ideal of fair equality of opportunity" (p. 213) -- the people who are now young will later get their opportunity
- "the absence of young adults in parliaments is a likely barrier to the enactment of intergenerationally just policies" (p. 213) (this is her answer)
Assumption: youth more likely to support policies good for youth...but is it true?
- Evidence -- see graphs in this article
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Solutions Bidadanure supports
Solution #1: lower the voting age (Monday, ageless voting)
Solution #2: youth quotas in legislatures/parliaments
Is this an age group or birth cohort quota?
- age group quota -- e.g. 20% of the House must be under 35 (mainly this)
- birth cohort/generation quotas -- e.g. 20% of the House must be Gen Z or Millennial
- Substantive benefit -- quotas needed for policies that benefit younger people
- Symbolic benefit -- sends a message that youth are fit for leadership
Which principle of justice is she drawing on?
- Approximate generational equality
- Prudential lifespan account -- differences should be acceptable to someone planning their life from beyond the lifespan -- principle of efficency
- Relational justice -- no stigmatizing, demeaning, dominating, etc.
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How would youth quotas work?
- Uganda, Kenya, Morocco
- in the US?
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Increasing youth representation is Bidadanure's goal
Decreasing very old leaders as a separate goal
- we have age minimums (25 for House, 30 for Senate, 35 for president)
- should we have age maximums? 65? 75? (no Trump vs. Biden)
- term limits
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Objections to Bidadanure?
I. The puzzle of age discrimination: is age like gender and race? (ch. 1, p. 23-30) Oct 27
- gender and race inequalities tend to be diachronic (therefore esp. bad)
- birth cohort inequalities tend to be diachronic
- age group inequalities tend to be synchronic (less bad, but may still be unjust)
II. Principles of justice, fairness, equality when it comes to age groups and birth cohorts
- approximate equality between birth cohorts/generations (ch. 1, p. 42-47) Oct 31
- Gen Z shouldn't do worse than the previous generation
- Prudential Lifespan Account (PLA) (ch. 2, p. 50-55) Oct 27, Nov 3
- account of how resources should be distributed across age groups
- principle of efficiency
- Relational justice (ch. 3, p. 95-110) Nov 3
- no dominating, disrespecting, demeaning, stigmatizing, marginalizing, humiliating
- workplace (ch. 5, p. 172-178) Nov 3, Nov 5
- politics (ch. 7, p.219-221) Nov 7
