Campos, Andre Santos2025-08-2620251369-8230PURE: 126665606PURE UUID: 62dffdd3-9b7b-4e3c-82fc-f4bb906cf8e3Scopus: 105012578599ORCID: /0000-0003-0836-010X/work/190581706http://hdl.handle.net/10362/186915UID/00183/2025 https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/00183/2025Political scientists often regard responsiveness as a measure of democratic representation. However, responsiveness is particularly difficult with regard to the young. Populations are ageing quickly, old-age dependency ratios are increasing, the young vote less than other age groups, and younger citizens feel they have no political clout. This paper proposes a series of instruments designed to justify the increased consideration of younger citizens’ interests in a manner consistent with the standard view of representation as responsiveness. It is divided into three sections. The first describes the current taxonomy of responsiveness, which differs depending on the agents, objects and viewpoints. A broader notion of responsiveness implies that it is multidimensional and that responsiveness in one dimension does not necessarily entail responsiveness in other dimensions. Despite this context, the young seem to have a representation deficit in all known dimensions of responsiveness. The second section challenges the very framework of political representation as it is tied to responsiveness, drawing on the recent constructivist trend in political representation. This section shows that criticisms of responsiveness prove insufficient to dismiss its importance from democratic forms of representation. The third section proposes three reforms that are likely to increase responsiveness on different dimensions based on age: the establishment of temporal electoral circles, the creation of mandatory youth-focused measurement indexes, and a normative strategy for promoting age-group responsiveness, consisting of attentiveness by representatives of the represented’s time-related objective interests.25513273engAge-group justiceDemocratic representationResponsivenessResponsiveness-responsibility dilemmaTemporal electoral circlesYouth politicsPhilosophySociology and Political Sciencejournal article10.1080/13698230.2025.2541159https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105012578599https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698230.2025.2541159#abstract