Should Political Discrimination be Unlawful?

Thomas W. Simpson

British Journal of Political Science, 2025, vol. 55, -

Abstract: Should people be protected by law from discrimination on the grounds of political affiliation and belief? I argue that individuals’ democratic right to exercise political agency – which implies freedom of association and freedom to express one’s political belief – requires that individuals should not be vulnerable to being treated disadvantageously because of their political affiliation and belief. To accomplish this, the protectorate of discrimination law should be expanded where relevant to include that characteristic. Moreover, in contexts where political and specifically affective polarisation is severe, the risk of such treatment increases, further justifying the legal innovation. While this thesis has received almost no prior discussion in the literature on the normative justification of discrimination law, and is revisionary in the UK and the USA, this absence is striking both in a comparative legal context and especially given the centrality of these freedoms to democratic politics.

Date: 2025
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