Towards All Voices, from All Levels and in Their Own Ways? A Discussion of the Youth Quota Proposal as an Incremental Policy Innovation for Sustainability

Abstract

If only a minority in national parliaments, provincial parliaments and town hall assemblies is below 30 years of age, do we have to worry about justice between generations and the long-term sustainability of the political system? Do we need an instrument such as the youth quota to improve the long-term justice of the parliamentary system? This chapter analyzes the youth quota proposal as a putative incremental policy innovation that seeks to improve the participation of young citizens via a quota that would increase youth access to the parliamentary system. The analysis, which conceptually draws on the capabilities approach and empirically on the experience with a youth campaign and a youth parliament, suggests that a youth quota could play a moderate role for promoting justice between generations—but only if it is carefully linked to political parties and a multi-level political system and if it is designed with sensitivity to the cultural conception of youth and the conflict this entails between participation and education. Moreover, the quota has to be integrated into a more general approach that does justice to distant generations in time and especially in space, or else the normative impetus will get lost due to incoherence.