TY - JOUR
T1 - The British Academy Brian Barry Prize Essay
T2 - Representing the Future: The Interests of Future Persons in Representative Democracy
AU - Campos, Andre Santos
N1 - UIDB/00183/2020
UIDP/00183/2020
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - As a reaction against contemporary democracy's inherent short-sightedness in solving problems that are likely to affect distant future generations, there has been a recent increase in proposals for different kinds of democratic representation of future persons. This article shows that even though there can be no such thing as political representation of future persons, the relevant affected interests of the as-yet unborn can still be taken into consideration in political decision making. This aim is achieved by focusing on the political representation of children as special cases of semi-future members of the class of the represented.
AB - As a reaction against contemporary democracy's inherent short-sightedness in solving problems that are likely to affect distant future generations, there has been a recent increase in proposals for different kinds of democratic representation of future persons. This article shows that even though there can be no such thing as political representation of future persons, the relevant affected interests of the as-yet unborn can still be taken into consideration in political decision making. This aim is achieved by focusing on the political representation of children as special cases of semi-future members of the class of the represented.
KW - future generations
KW - future persons
KW - political representation
KW - representative democracy
KW - semi-future constituency
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078883052&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S000712341900067X
DO - 10.1017/S000712341900067X
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85078883052
SP - 1
EP - 15
JO - British Journal of Political Science
JF - British Journal of Political Science
SN - 0007-1234
ER -