The principle of All Citizens Stakeholders: who gets excluded?

Anno LIII, n. 221, gennaio-aprile 2018

In Democratic Inclusion Bauböck offers a solution to the demos problem, that is the problem of establishing who is entitled to participate in the ruling of the polity through the exercise of democratic political rights. According to Bauböck’s solution, the demos should include those who have a stake in the polity’s autonomy and flourishing. I raise two concerns about Bauböck’s argument. The first is that it appears to unduly assume that any solution to the demos problem that derives claims to inclusion from subjection to the same government must be arbitrary and indeterminate. The second, more substantive qualm I have with Acs is that it may lead to unduly exclusionary implications. In fact, Acs potentially excludes marginalised and disadvantaged individuals or groups who have strong interconnections with the polity because they have been born and live in its midst, but cannot be said to have a stake in the autonomy and flourishing of the polity exactly because they hold a marginal and disadvantaged position within it.