Capacity testing young people.

My contribution to the APSA conference I am attending went off  without a hitch this morning.  I presented a paper I have been working on in which I argue that a) (In)capacity is the only legitimate excuse for excluding citizens from political participation, b) Some young people are capable and excluded, therefore c) we should lower the voting age & institute capacity testing to further reduce the number of people who are wrongly excluded from participation.

I received a surprisingly positive reception from the audience, who largely seemed to like the idea.  A couple of people were concerned about where this would fit within a broader framework of youth inclusion, such as the expansion of civic education and representation, but these issues can I think be addressed with relative ease (maybe a book?!).

Paper here.