Of course that’s politically impossible, but it’s an interesting thought experiment
Is my sarcasm detector broken or something? This experiment has been performed many times in many places, rich white males usually being the prime example of “some competent class”.
Actually, I find the Heinlein’s idea in Starship Troopers intriguing, where only ex-military are given citizenship.
Excuse me; politically impossible within the current political climate.
If you know of some way to restrict voting to some more competent reference class than “adults”, please do so.
History is against you, though, the power-holding reference class has been expanding rather than contracting (non-landholders, women’s suffrage, civil rights, etc).
One relatively simple (but also easily gameable) criteria is education and/or intelligence. Only 18-year-olds with a high school/college/postgraduate degree, only 18-year-olds with an IQ score/SAT score >= X, etc. We don’t want to try that because we know how quickly the tests and measurements would be twisted with ideology, and we worry that we would end up systematically discriminating against a class of people based on some hidden criterion other than intelligence/education, such as political views.
Is my sarcasm detector broken or something? This experiment has been performed many times in many places, rich white males usually being the prime example of “some competent class”.
Actually, I find the Heinlein’s idea in Starship Troopers intriguing, where only ex-military are given citizenship.
Excuse me; politically impossible within the current political climate.
If you know of some way to restrict voting to some more competent reference class than “adults”, please do so.
History is against you, though, the power-holding reference class has been expanding rather than contracting (non-landholders, women’s suffrage, civil rights, etc).
One relatively simple (but also easily gameable) criteria is education and/or intelligence. Only 18-year-olds with a high school/college/postgraduate degree, only 18-year-olds with an IQ score/SAT score >= X, etc. We don’t want to try that because we know how quickly the tests and measurements would be twisted with ideology, and we worry that we would end up systematically discriminating against a class of people based on some hidden criterion other than intelligence/education, such as political views.
And to be fair, you’d have to give ten or a hundred votes to people with PhD’s in political science.