William Claes Oscar E Sjöstedt

Forskningsprofil

My PhD project deals with the legitimacy of excluding youth and future generations from democracy and how we may justify political decisions to these groups. The boundary problem, of who ought to be included in democratic procedures is well-discussed in political theory. However, often youth and future generations are excluded from the discussion. This in spite of the intuition that all who are affected by a political decision ought to have a say in that decision. In light of climate change and the growing timelines of impact of our decisions, questions of who democracy should represent and what their role in that is pushed to the fore-front. Especially as in many cases, youth and future generations may be more affected by the climate issues. A core question of the project is how climate change alters how we take decisions when it affects people beyond those who can participate.

The PhD investigates the justifications presented for these exclusions in order to evaluate whether practices of exclusion are democratically legitimate or constitute a form of domination or arbitrary rule. In discussing youth and democracy, complex questions of capacity, autonomy and responsibility must weighed against each-other and I ask whether capacity or social criteria better make sense of this issue. As it regards future generations inherent issues of insecurity are discussed; regarding their preferences, interests and the impact of our decisions and for how long we can really speak of representation.

The PhD is written as a part of the Borders of Democracy project with funding from Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond, with Simon Laumann Jørgensen as the principle supervisor