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- Title
REPRESENTING PEOPLE AND NOT INTERESTS: A RAWLSIAN CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE RIGHT TO VOTE.
- Authors
Studniberg, Brian M.
- Abstract
The author advances a Rawlsian rationale for mandating voter equality -- that is, "one person, one vote" -- as a basic matter of constitutional law in support of a principled and practical interpretation of section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Th e author examines prospective bases for the right to vote, chiefly focusing on two interpretive approaches -- presumptive and relative equality. Although John Rawls made it clear in his seminal A Theory of Justice that he favoured voter equality as the basis for political participation in a democracy, a complete account of his reasoning and arguments for this position has seemingly only been possible with the benefit of the consideration of his later works in political philosophy. The author first identifies why the need for a reinterpretation of section 3's right to vote poses a pressing problem for Canada's constitutional democracy and then explains the two leading accounts of presumptive and relative equality as a matter of first principles. With this essential background in place, the author proceeds to consider three broad parts of a Rawlsian rationale for voter equality. Th e author concludes that mandating voter equality in a democracy allows for the most stable, cohesive, and robust platform permitting individual citizens to pursue their own conceptions of the good while still allowing for the constitutional protection of the fundamental interests of minorities.
- Subjects
CANADA; SUFFRAGE; CONSTITUTIONAL law; RAWLS, John, 1921-2002; CANADA. Canadian Charter of Rights &; Freedoms; THEORY of Justice, A (Book : Rawls); POLITICAL participation &; society; POLITICAL philosophy; DEMOCRACY; MINORITY voting rights; VOTERS
- Publication
Review of Constitutional Studies, 2009, Vol 14, Issue 1, p53
- ISSN
1192-8034
- Publication type
Article