The future of citizenship: A deliberative investigation of preference formation on voting rights in European migration societies

• Applicant: Dr. Franziska Maier
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 566221006

In times of permeable borders, struggles over citizenship are high on the political agenda across Europe. For policymakers and political scientists alike, it is of increasing relevance to understand citizens’ opinions on these issues to maintain democratic integrity and social cohesion. However, public opinion on issues around migration are often ambiguous and policy solutions multifaceted. This research proposal applies a comparative design to four European migration societies to explore these questions. It contributes insights to the theoretical and empirical democracy research, and informs policy questions on pressing questions around citizenship and migration.Across European democracies, migrants’ lack of access to voting rights is increasingly probelmatised in public discourse. In political theory, non-citizen voting rights embody a central trade-off between universal democratic norms of inclusion and the integrity of national citizenship. While many political theorists propose voting rights based on residence instead of citizenship, attempts to introduce this proposal have frequently failed. This makes for an intriguing divide between political theory and practice. This research proposal explores why this is the case by focusing on three research questions. First, a comparative design is implemented in Germany, France and Spain, three fundamentally different migration regimes. It is designed for cooperation with a project in the United Kingdom. A representative survey allows a broad comparison of opinions on non-citizen voting rights across European migration societies.Second, treatments are applied to capture how opinions on non-citizen voting rights are formed through reflection and deliberation. While deliberative solutions are increasingly proposed to address tricky policy problems, there are research gaps regarding potential substantive policy outcomes. This is especially relevant in contexts of polarized discourses prevalent to migration. The methodological design makes use of Rainer Forst’s (2001) theoretical concept of “communitarian” and “liberal” deliberation to distinguish potential deliberative outcomes: While the latter proposes that deliberation leads participants towards progressive positions, “communitarian” deliberation proposes an orientation towards communal values. Third, questions of citizenship in the 21st century are also questions of global democracy. The existence of transnational discourses is explored to contribute to research on the “universalism” vs. “particularlism” divide. Universalists are seen as cosmopolitans committed to universal rules, while particularlists are seen as communitarians who refer to national specificities. The proposal investigates the extent to which transnationalism is already a reality for citizens, or whether there is a backlash to transnational aspiration. It also explores the existence of arguments common to all country contexts, i.e. potentially emergent pan-European discourses.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France, Spain, United Kingdom
• Cooperation Partners: Camille Bedock, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Lala Muradova; Professor Dr. Matt Ryan