5 - People with Severe Intellectual Disabilities as Passive Citizens

Summary

This chapter gives a critical exploration of the various ways that PSID might be included within the reach of contractual justice as passive citizens – that is, as citizens who nevertheless lack the requisite abilities to enter into contractualist processes. First, I consider contractualist attempts, such as that of Christine Korsgaard, that try to reconcile this ‘passive citizenship’ with robust moral status. I then consider Rawlsian attempts at defending passive citizenship, such as Adam Cureton’s and Cynthia Stark’s proposals. I detect a number of issues with these contractualist strategies. For instance, some of them may rely on non-Rawlsian or noncontractualist values; they may render PSID’s moral status too vulnerable to the whims of contractors; or they may be too indeterminate to solve important social dilemmas.