In-Person | The Right to Stand and the Democratic Value of Election

Speaker: Professor Annabelle Lever (SciencesPo)

About the Session

The right to stand as a candidate to the legislature of one’s country (and to serve if elected) is the neglected step-child of democratic theory. Although it is generally accepted that adequate protection for the right to stand, no less than for the right to vote, marks a distinction between democratic and undemocratic elections, the right to stand has received little, if any, attention in the philosophical or social scientific literature. We might therefore think that it is of little democratic significance in itself – or that its content and justification can be reduced to the claims of voters and/or political parties. This paper shows why that is not the case, and that neglect of the right to stand makes it difficult to distinguish democratic from undemocratic elections.

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The Institute brings together political and legal theorists from Law, Political Science and Philosophy and organises regular colloquia in terms 2 and 3. Read more about the Institute's work.

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