Abstract

GOMEZ RUIZ, MARÍA JOSÉ. Two sides of the same coin: political equality and electoral rights, a study of formal qualifications on the right to candidacy. Rev. Derecho Estado [online]. 2023, n.57, pp.85-108.  Epub Dec 01, 2023. ISSN 0122-9893.  https://doi.org/10.18601/01229893.n57.04.

In popular democratic conceptions, the right to candidacy and the right to vote are two sides of the same coin. Nonetheless, as the legislative analysis in this paper shows, their sets of right holders are not symmetrical in the extant practice of otherwise paradigmatically democratic countries. This fact is problematic as democratic legitimacy is, first and foremost, predicated upon the formal equality of citizens. As such, this stark asymmetry between the two most fundamental electoral rights demands a sound normative account, one which has been seriously neglected by electoral scholars. After outlining what the most plausible account would look like, the paper argues that, all other things being equal, countries currently have no way to comply with it. It normatively follows that the qualification bars for candidacy, which formally demarcate its set of rightsholders, should be lowered and expanded to match those currently in place for the right to vote.

Keywords : Electoral rights; right to candidacy; right to vote; political equality; democratic theory; representative democracy.

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