Claudio Lopez-Guerra, “Democracy and Disenfranchisement: The Morality of Electoral Exclusions” (Oxford UP, 2014)
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What is Claudio López‑Guerra’s main argument against universal suffrage?
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Welcome to the New Books and Philosophy Channel of the New Books Network. My name is Robert Talise, I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co host the channel with Carrie Figder. Carrie is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa. Today. My guest is Professor Claudio Lopez Guerra. His new book is titled Democracy and Disenfranchisement. The morality of electoral exclusions. It has just been published by Oxford University Press. Lopez Guerra is research professor in the Department of Political Studies at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City. Modern democracy is built around a collection of moral and political commitments. Among the most familiar and central of these concerns voting.
It's commonly held that legitimate government requires a system of universal suffrage. Yet Democrats tend to hold that certain exclusions are nevertheless permissible. For example, it's commonly thought that children and the mentally impaired may justifiably be disenfranchised. We also tend to think That the disenfranchisement of felons and non citizen residents is permissible. Indeed, these exclusions are often thought to be consistent with universal suffrage. In democracy and disenfranchisement, Claudio Lopez Guerra challenges our common understandings about voting. Ultimately, he argues in favor of an elitist system of enfranchisement by lottery. He also challenges arguments that universal suffrage is consistent with the exclusion of children, the mentally impaired, felons, and resident non citizens.
The result is a fascinating and provocative exploration of the fundamental idea that voting is a basic right. Let's turn to the interview. Hello Claudio Lopez Guerra.
Hi Bob. Uh thank you for inviting me to your show. It's great to be here.
Well, thank you for uh agreeing to uh talk to us today on New Books in Philosophy. And thank you listeners uh for joining us. Today my guest is Claudio Lopez Guerra. Uh we'll be talking about his new book. Democracy and disenfranchisement, the morality of electoral exclusions. This is a challenging and provocative book that I highly recommend. Um in it, Claudio lays out a common conception of suffrage among democrats and democratic theorists. and then challenges it thoroughly. Um to be a little more precise, Claudio subjects to criticism the common views about who may vote, who may be denied suffrage. Uh, such that whereas we commonly hold that say children and felons may be disenfranchised. Uh Claudio denied this.
More strikingly, he argues for a system by which large numbers of citizens would be disenfranchised for being politically. incompetent. Now we just had an election in the United States.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Claudio López‑Guerra’s main argument against universal suffrage?
0:00–9:38
2
How does the book define and criticize the “conventional suffrage doctrine”?
9:38–18:56
3
What is the “enfranchisement lottery” and how is it supposed to work?
18:56–27:46
4
Why does López‑Guerra reject the exclusion of children and the mentally impaired?
27:46–36:01
5
How does the author treat non‑citizen residents versus non‑resident citizens?
36:01–44:25
6
What epistemic reasons does he give for including or excluding felons?
44:25–52:30
7
How does the “enfranchisement lottery” compare to universal suffrage on political stability and fairness?
52:30–1:00:20
8
What broader impact does López‑Guerra hope his book will have on democratic theory?
1:00:20–1:07:53
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