In May, the citizens across the 28 European countries will elect their new 751 representatives at the European Parliament. What the Europeans will decide in May and in the near future is more than ever crucial for the Continent. Europe indeed needs to solve difficult issues, such as a stagnant GDP, high youth unemployment, together with diverging economic trajectories among the member states. The thorny situation can be solved only by specific, efficient and tough decisions, but are the European voters ready to do their duty? A recent survey casts doubt on the competence of the European voter.

Following, the recent commentary in WordPost, “Should Voters be tested?”, co-written with Prof. Daniel Bell, I propose to introduce a multiple choice test in order to improve the political knowledge of the European voters. I then i) defend our proposal from two objections, the “Communitarian argument” and the “Egalitarian argument”, and ii) explain some of the advantages of the test over two alternative solutions.

Graduate Seminar Series.
Date: Tuesday, 1 Apr 2014
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Venue: Philosophy Resource Room (AS3 #05-23)
Speaker: Elena Ziliotti
Moderator: Jane Loo

About the Speaker:

Elena is a PhD student in the Join Program between NUS and King’s College London. Elena holds an M.A. in Analytic Philosophy from University of Barcelona UB (Spain) and an M.A. in Philosophy from University of Parma (Italy). As an undergraduate, she studied philosophy at the University of Parma and was a visiting student at the Radboud University in Nijmegen (Netherlands). Elena’s main area of research is Political Philosophy. Her PhD dissertation will focus on Political Meritocracy, investigating the relation among this form of governance and the main strains of thought in Western political philosophy.