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Claudio Lopez-Guerra

 

Assistant Professor

Department of Political Studies

CIDE, Mexico City

 

 

    PUBLICATIONS     RESEARCH     CV      TEACHING    

 


 

Welcome. I am a political philosopher at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City. I received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in New York in 2008. My primary interest is the philosophical analysis of current problems in public life. Questions of institutional design in relation to democracy and social justice are central to my work. My approach to political theory is normative rather than historical, problem-centered rather than author-centered, and practical rather than abstract. My work has appeared in such journals as The Journal of Political Philosophy; Politics, Philosophy & Economics, and Social Theory and Practice.

 

 

claudio.lopezguerra@cide.edu

cide, division de estudios politicos

carretera mexico-toluca 3655

mexico d.f., 01210, mexico, +52 55 57279828

 


 

 

Selected Publications

 

- "Comparing Voting Lotteries: A Response to Saunders," Politics, Philosophy, & Economics, forthcoming.

 

- "Enfranchising Minors and the Mentally Impaired." Social Theory and Practice. Vol 38. No. 1 (January 2012).

 

- "The Enfranchisement Lottery." Politics, Philosophy, & Economics. Vol 10. No. 2. 2011.

 

Subject of Journal Debate: See Ben Saunders, "Combining Lotteries and Voting," Politics, Philosophy, & Economics, first published on January 27, 2012 as doi:10.1177/1470594X11416783

 

- "Against the Parallel Case for Workplace Democracy." Journal of Economic Philosophy / Revue de Philosophie ƒconomique. Vol 9. No. 1. 2008.

 

- "Should Expatriates Vote?" The Journal of Political Philosophy. Vol. 13. No. 2. 2005. "

 

- "Tocqueville on Catholicism and Democracy." The Tocqueville Review. Vol. XXV. No. 2. 2004. pp. 141-162.

 

More publications and work under review: CV.

 

 

 

Research

 

I am currently working on two projects:

 

 

A. The Right to Vote

 

I have a book manuscript on the ethics of electoral exclusions that is currently under review. The book challenges some of the most widely accepted views on the allocation of the right to vote. It argues that in some realistic and desirable circumstances it is acceptable to disfranchise the vast majority of the adult population of a state for lacking an optimal level of voting information, and adopt instead an elitist system called Òthe enfranchisement lottery.Ó It also argues that, in a system with universal suffrage, the disfranchisement of children, the mentally impaired, felons, and resident aliens is hard to justify, whereas the exclusion of nonresident citizens is generally valid. The book examines the morality of these issues directly rather than from the perspective of Òdemocratic theory,Ó an approach that is found wanting.

 

The current table of contents looks as follows:

 

 

1. Introduction: The Ethics of Electoral Exclusions

 

2. Disfranchisement on the Basis of Suboptimal Competence

 

3. Disfranchisement on the Basis of Subminimal Competence

 

4. Disfranchisement on the Basis of Non-Residency and Non-Citizenship

 

5. Disfranchisement on the Basis of Felony Convictions

 

6. Disfranchisement and the Limits of Democratic Theory

 

7. Conclusion

 

 

B. Justice in Immigration

 

 

The current debate on the ethics of immigration focuses on the requirements of justice regarding the claims of outsiders versus the claims of insiders who wish to restrict immigration flux. In this project I consider what is owed as a matter of justice to insiders who would want to invite outsiders to move in the polity. This project is in its early stages, but some written work is available upon request.

 

 

Teaching

 

 

I am currently teaching Introduction to Political Science and Contemporary Political Theory at the undergraduate level. A sample syllabus for a graduate seminar on Issues in Democratic Theory and Practice can be downloaded here.