Unequal Political Participation Worldwide

"Political equality is an essential political ideal and it is the cornerstone of moral justifications of democracy. Most people would agree with the proposition that the interests and preferences of each citizen must be given equal consideration in the political process because no person is intrinsically superior to others in ways that can justify preferential consideration. A second premise is that each person is the best judge of her own interests and preferences and is capable of expressing them, hence ruling out an enlightened ruler as the best interpreter of citizens' preferences. Taken together, these two claims provide a powerful case for democracy. Only in electoral democracies can all citizens, in principle, have an equal influence in the political process(Dahl 1971, 2008; Przeworski 2010)"--