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1 results

  • 1 - Proximity Principle, Adieu

  • from Part I - Subjection, Interaction, Power, and Domination
  • Edited by Archon Fung, Harvard University, Massachusetts, Sean W. D. Gray, Memorial University of Newfoundland
  • Book:
    Empowering Affected Interests
    Published online:
    14 November 2024
    Print publication:
    14 November 2024, pp 21-37
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  • Summary

    In this chapter I analyze what grounds there might be for delimiting electorates in a geographical way, as we have long done. The best justification for that, I suggest, is the Proximity Principle – the principle that we should govern ourselves together with others nearby to us. The justification for that principle, in turn, was that proximity generally increases the frequency, range, depth and certainty of peoples interactions with one another. In short, including everyone proximate to one another in the same electorate was just a way of enfranchising All Affected Interests. But with the advent of globalization has come the increasing scope for and reality of action at a distance. Nowadays we can be relatively certain of having frequent, wide-ranging and deep interactions with others far away. So the same factors that once justified including people proximate to one another in the same electorate would now justify extending voting rights to others much more distant, beyond the bounds of todays states.