Dos caras de la misma moneda: la igualdad política y los derechos electorales, un estudio de las restricciones formales sobre el derecho a ser elegido
| Autor | María José Gómez Ruiz |
| Cargo | Professor at the Humanities Institute from Universidad Panamericana, Campus Guadalajara, where she has been head of the Academy of Social and Political Philosophy and the Academy of Philosophical Anthropology and Ethics. |
| Páginas | 85-108 |
MARÍA JOSÉ GÓMEZ RUIZ*
Two sides of the same coin:
political equality and electoral rights,
a study of formal qualifications
on the right to candidacy**
Dos caras de la misma moneda:
la igualdad política y los derechos
electorales, un estudio de las restricciones
formales sobre el derecho a ser elegido
ABSTRACT
In popular democratic conceptions, the right to candidacy and the right to
vote are two sides of the same coin. Nonetheless, as the legislative analysis
in this paper shows, their sets of right holders are not symmetrical in the ex-
tant practice of otherwise paradigmatically democratic countries. This fact is
problematic as democratic legitimacy is, first and foremost, predicated upon
the formal equality of citizens. As such, this stark asymmetry between the
two most fundamental electoral rights demands a sound normative account,
one which has been seriously neglected by electoral scholars. After outlining
what the most plausible account would look like, the paper argues that, all
other things being equal, countries currently have no way to comply with
it. It normatively follows that the qualification bars for candidacy, which
formally demarcate its set of rightsholders, should be lowered and expanded
to match those currently in place for the right to vote.
KEYWORDS
Electoral rights, right to candidacy, right to vote, political equality, democratic
theory, representative democracy.
* Professor at the Humanities Institute from Universidad Panamericana, Campus Gua-
dalajara, where she has been head of the Academy of Social and Political Philosophy and the
Academy of Philosophical Anthropology and Ethics. Email: mjgomez@up.edu.mx ORCID ID:
0000-0003-4367-5262
** Received on July 3rd, 2023, approved on June 27th, 2023.
To quote the article: Gómez Ruiz, M. J. Two sides of the same coin: political equality and
electoral rights, a study of formal qualifications on the right to candidacy. In Revista Derecho
del Estado, Universidad Externado de Colombia. No. 57, September – December, 2023, 85-108.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18601/01229893.N57.04
Revista Derecho del Estado n.º 56, mayo - agosto de 2023, pp. 85-108
86 María José Gómez Ruiz
Revista Derecho del Estado n.º 57, september-december 2023, pp. 85-108
RESUMEN
En el imaginario popular sobre la democracia, el derecho a ser elegido y el
derecho al voto suelen ser considerados como dos caras de la misma moneda.
Sin embargo, el análisis legislativo realizado demuestra que el conjunto de
sus derechohabientes no es simétrico en las prácticas existentes incluso en
los países que, por lo demás, son paradigmáticamente democráticos. Este
hecho es problemático debido a que la legitimidad democrática está predica-
da de manera especial sobre la igualdad formal de los ciudadanos. Por ello,
la marcada asimetría entre los dos derechos electorales más fundamentales
exige un cimiento normativo sólido. La elaboración de este, no obstante, es
un trabajo que ha quedado descuidado por la academia. Tras bosquejar cómo
podría verse el cimiento normativo más plausible para justificar la asimetría,
se argumenta que, en igualdad de condiciones, los países actualmente no tie-
nen manera de cumplir con él. La consecuencia normativa de ello es que las
restricciones formales al derecho a ser elegido, mismas que de facto definen
el conjunto de sus derechohabientes, deberían aminorarse y expandirse de
modo que empaten aquellas que limitan el derecho al voto.
PALABRAS CLAVE
Derechos electorales, derecho a ser elegido, derecho al voto, igualdad política,
teoría democrática, democracia representativa.
SUMMARY
Introduction. 1. Legal qualifications on the Right to Candidacy. 2. The right
to candidacy as a more stringent right than the right to vote. 3. The Right to
Vote and the Right to Candidacy as Equally Fundamental Political Participa-
tion Rights. Conclusion. References.
INTRODUCTION
Despite all of the democratic advances of the last decades, there is still a fun-
damental feature of representative democracy that has surprisingly received
little to no attention, both from academia and the general public. This is the
role played by the formal and substantial shape and function of the Human
Right to Candidacy (the right of every citizen to run for office, henceforth
RC) within the context of a true democratic practice. Indeed, the focus of
attention of both scholars and the public alike has been placed on the activity,
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