Should the More Highly Educated Get More Votes? Education, Voting and Representation

Ideas, Debates, and More: Meeting of European and Asian Higher Education Researchers

Topic: Should the More Highly Educated Get More Votes? Education, Voting and Representation

Co-organizers: Social Contexts and Policies of Education (Academic Unit) (SCAPE), Consortium for Higher Education Research in Asia (CHERA)

Date: May 16, 2022 (Monday)

Time: 18:00-19:00 (HKT)

Format: Zoom

Registration: https://scape.edu.hku.hk/may1622/

Chair: Dr Hugo Horta, The University of Hong Kong

Speaker: Prof Malcolm Tight, Lancaster University

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.