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3Democratic disenfranchisement: a relational accountInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. forthcoming.Standard accounts of democratic disenfranchisement either start from a presumption of universal inclusion and justify electoral exclusions as deviations from the norm, or attempt to draw a demarcation line between justifiable inclusion and exclusion relying on membership in the political community. Even when successfully employed, each strategy only provides a partial view of disenfranchisement, which is usually targeted at just one or two groups of agents. In this article, I develop a generally…Read more
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10Voting Lotteries, Compulsory Voting and Negative FreedomThe Journal of Ethics 28 (2): 331-349. 2024.In this article I aim to counter Jason Brennan’s principled objection to the Representativeness Argument for compulsory voting, and to criticize the case in favour of voting lotteries, on which this challenge is predicated. In brief, Brennan claims that compulsory voting should be rejected because there is an alternative system, i.e. a voting lottery, which is able to ensure demographic proportionality in electoral turnouts without diminishing the freedom of citizens. But even on the most favour…Read more
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31Wealth, Political Inequality, and Resilience: Revisiting the Democratic Argument for LimitarianismRes Publica 1-19. forthcoming.In this paper I aim to provide a novel account of the Democratic Argument for limitarianism. I first claim that the standard version of this argument is questionable due to its reliance on a problematic central premise, namely that excessive wealth damages democracy because of its detrimental impact on political equality. Subsequently, I relocate the fundamental democratic worry in regard to excessive wealth in the process of backsliding, and more specifically in the relation between excessive w…Read more
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43Too old to vote? A democratic analysis of age-weighted votingEuropean Journal of Political Theory 22 (4): 565-586. 2023.Are there any prima facie reasons that democracies might have for disenfranchising older citizens? This question reflects increasingly salient, but often incompletely theorized complaints that members of democratic publics advance about older citizens’ electoral influence. Rather than rejecting these complaints out of hand, we explore whether, suitably reconstructed, they withstand democratic scrutiny. More specifically, we examine whether the account of political equality that seems to most fit…Read more
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26Alegeri morale. Teme actuale de etică aplicată (edited book)Polirom. 2021.De ce este importanta familia? Care este statutul moral al copiilor si cine are ce responsabilitati fata de ei? Ce este consimtamintul si care sint conditiile in care este valid? Care ar trebui sa fie rolul religiei in dezbaterile publice dintr-o societate democrata? Cum ar trebui sa fie gestionate inegalitatile sociale create de mosteniri? Ar trebui ca vaccinarea sa fie obligatorie? Este legitim sa fie cenzurate anumite forme de discurs? Avem datoria sa votam si, daca da, care sint considerente…Read more
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4574Etica aplicată şi de ce avem nevoie de eaIn Alexandru Volacu, Daniela Cutas & Adrian Miroiu (eds.), Alegeri morale. Teme actuale de etică aplicată, Polirom. 2021.În cele ce urmează vom prezenta pe scurt zona de cercetare a eticii aplicate și locul ei în cadrul disciplinei filosofiei. Vom discuta apoi despre ce fac filosofii când fac etică aplicată. Vom trece în revistă câteva concepte importante din etica aplicată, cum ar fi deontologie, virtute, grijă sau drepturi. Apoi vom încerca să oferim un răspuns la întrebarea din titlul introducerii: de ce avem nevoie de etica aplicată? Vom povesti pe scurt despre istoria eticii aplicate în România, iar la final …Read more
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27Justice, Symmetry, and Voting Rights CeilingsTheoria 87 (3): 643-658. 2021.In this article I aim to offer a first critical assessment of the most prominent arguments in favour of restricting the voting rights of senior citizens. The first argument discussed, most thoroughly articulated by van Parijs, maintains that intergenerational justice would be improved under schemes which restrict the voting rights of senior citizens, thereby diminishing their overall electoral weight. The second argument, reconstructed from Lau's defence of child enfranchisement, maintains that …Read more
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29Preferences, reasoning errors, and resource egalitarianismPhilosophical Studies 175 (8): 1851-1870. 2018.In this paper I aim to examine some problematic implications of the fact that individuals are prone to making systematic reasoning errors, for resource egalitarianism. I begin by disentangling the concepts of preferences, choices and ambitions, which are sometimes used interchangeably by egalitarians. Subsequently, I claim that the most plausible interpretation of resource egalitarianism takes preferences, not choices, as the site of responsibility. This distinction is salient, since preference-…Read more
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10Maximization, Slotean Satisficing, and Theories of Sufficientarian JusticeCroatian Journal of Philosophy 17 (1): 73-90. 2017.In this paper I seek to assess the responses provided by several theories of sufficientarian justice in cases where individuals hold different conceptions of rationality. Towards this purpose, I build two test cases and study the normative prescriptions which various sufficiency views offer in each of them. I maintain that resource sufficientarianism does not provide a normatively plausible response to the first case, since its distributive prescriptions would violate the principle of personal g…Read more
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42Pluralist welfare egalitarianism and the expensive tastes objectionContemporary Political Theory 15 (3): 285-303. 2016.
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22Heterogeneous Rationality and Reasonable Disagreement in the Original PositionJournal of Philosophical Research 42 131-148. 2017.In this paper I challenge the claim that each party in the original position will have a first-ranked preference for an identical set of principles of justice. I maintain, by contrast, that the original position allows parties to choose on the basis of different conceptions of rationality, which in turn may lead to a reasonable disagreement concerning the principles of justice selected. I then argue that this reasonable disagreement should not lead us to abandon contractualism, but rather to rec…Read more
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10An incrementalist approach to political philosophy. The case of heterogeneous rationality assumptions in theories of distributive justiceErasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics 9 (2): 217. 2016.
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25Prioritarianism and Other-Regarding Decision-Making under RiskEthical Perspectives 24 (2): 199-224. 2017.In the present contribution I attempt to refute a recent challenge raised by Michael Otsuka against prioritarianism, according to which the priority view is objectionable since it rejects the moral permissibility of choosing in accordance with rational self-interest – understood as maximization of expected utility – in one-person cases involving other-regarding decision-making under risk. I claim that Otsuka’s argument is bound to make an illegitimate move, which is either to assume implausibly …Read more
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93Assessing Non-intrinsic LimitarianismPhilosophia 47 (1): 249-264. 2019.In this paper we aim to examine a novel view on distributive justice, i.e. limitarianism, which claims that it is morally impermissible to be rich. Our main goal is to assess the two arguments provided by Ingrid Robeyns in favour of limitarianism, namely the democratic argument and the argument from unmet urgent needs and the two distinct limitarian views which these arguments give rise to. We claim that strong limitarianism, which is supported by the democratic argument, should be rejected as i…Read more
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21Heterogeneous Rationality and Reasonable Disagreement in the Original PositionJournal of Philosophical Research 42 131-148. 2017.In this paper I challenge the claim that each party in the original position will have a first-ranked preference for an identical set of principles of justice. I maintain, by contrast, that the original position allows parties to choose on the basis of different conceptions of rationality, which in turn may lead to a reasonable disagreement concerning the principles of justice selected. I then argue that this reasonable disagreement should not lead us to abandon contractualism, but rather to rec…Read more
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21Electoral Quid Pro Quo: A Defence of Barter Markets in VotesJournal of Applied Philosophy 36 (5): 769-784. 2019.In this article I aim to provide the first normative discussion of barter voting markets, namely markets which allow the trading of votes on issues/elections for votes on other issues/elections. The article is framed within the wider literature on the legal permissibility of vote buying, with a particular focus on the recent debate between Christopher Freiman and James Stacey Taylor. I argue that while Taylor's objections successfully defeat Freiman's case in favour of standard voting markets, t…Read more
Alexandru Volacu
Bucharest Center for Political Theory
University of Bucharest
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Bucharest Center for Political TheoryOther
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Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
Other Academic Areas |
Philosophy, Misc |
Areas of Interest
Value Theory |
Other Academic Areas |
Philosophy, Misc |