Mattéo Stienlet, a doctoral student in a cotutelle program between Université Laval and Paris 1, will give a presentation entitled “Égalité devant le suffrage, pouvoir électoral et envie”.

Chair: Juliette Roussin.

Abstract

Equality of suffrage is generally invoked to oppose two practices deemed anti-democratic: plural voting, which consists in weighting citizens’ votes differently, and inequalities of representation resulting from the use of electoral districts of very unequal sizes. By contrast, it is more difficult to provide a positive definition capable of identifying precisely the resource that must be distributed equally in order for equality of suffrage to be realized.

In a recent article entitled “One Person, One Vote” (2025), Daniel Wodak has shown that the solutions proposed by egalitarian philosophers fail insofar as they do not succeed in normatively grounding the rejection of all forms of plural voting and of significant representational inequalities, particularly when these practices occur randomly.

This presentation proposes to conceive of equality of suffrage as a norm of fair distribution of power, which requires that electoral districting and vote weighting be such that no voter envies the resources that democratic institutions allocate to others. After presenting this conception in detail, I argue that it can be justified on egalitarian premises and that it helps explain both why plural voting is unconditionally anti-democratic and under what conditions certain inequalities of representation may be permissible.

Biographical Note

Mattéo is a PhD candidate in political philosophy, completing a joint doctorate between Université Laval and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne under the supervision of Juliette Roussin and Magali Bessonne. His dissertation examines the relationship between political equality and representation in contemporary democracies, focusing on the normative issues raised by the delineation of electoral districts.

He holds a Master’s degree in political philosophy from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and has previously worked on epistemic justifications of democracy. His main research interests include contemporary theories of political egalitarianism and democracy, as well as the relationship between political philosophy and the social sciences. matteo.stienlet.1@ulaval.ca

Hybrid format

To participate via Zoom, click here (Meeting ID: 851 2545 8884; Passcode: 9Me2EW).