Call for reforming our democracies: rejuvenating the median voter

Justina A. V. Fischer

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Aging populations threaten the future of Western societies and their democratic systems. An aging electorate leads to policies dominated by fear (of death), hindering important social reforms. This article describes this phenomenon from a political philosophy and behavioral psychology perspective and proposes a solution based on a new interpretation of social contract theory. Specifically, I propose the down-weighing of ballots of older voters by their remaining lifespans. I conclude with a discussion of the justice and the fairness of my proposal from the perspective of political philosophy and public economics.

Keywords: median voter; social contract; aging population; voting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H0 I3 J10 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12-26
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-cdm, nep-dem and nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:111240

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