Ideas, Debates, and More: Meeting of European and Asian Higher Education Researchers
Should the More Highly Educated Get More Votes? Education, Voting and Representation
Speaker: Professor Malcolm TIGHT Lancaster University
Chair: Dr Horta HUGO The University of Hong Kong
Date: 16 May 2022 (Monday)
Time: 17:00-18:00 (HK Time) by zoom
Registration: Click here
Abstract
This seminar re-examines an old issue – the relation between education, voting and representation – but one which has attracted little attention in educational circles in recent years. In the past it attracted the attention of great thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Newman and Mill. In the UK there is a practical precedent, rarely recalled today, where for centuries the universities had their own representatives in parliament. There are also some interesting contemporary arguments on the topic put forward in favour of an epistocracy (as some call it) by social scientists, but it seems that most would not now dare to suggest that the more highly educated might be given more votes, largely on the grounds of equity.
