26 C. Armstrong in such dire straits that such deals are, all-things-considered, an acceptable way of proceeding. But if that is true, what if the straits are financial ones, and the deal in question is, simply, the selling of citizenship? I suspect that selling citizenship is perhaps not always wrong, even if it often will be. In the rest of this response I set out five reasons, though, for restricting the sale of citizenship. Some of these concerns can be avoided. Others remain genuine worries. But the way they ought to concern us is interesting, because they suggest that what is wrong with selling citizenship also applies to other instances of citizenship acquisition. Perhaps, then, selling citizenship is just the most visible case of a wider phenomenon. Perhaps, for all its blatancy, it is not even the most important case. 1. What if selling citizenship has not been democratically authorised (or, as Shachar suggests, it is veiled in secrecy), whereas if ‘the people’ had been properly consulted, they would not have endorsed such a policy? (A survey shortly before the Maltese decision showed 53 per cent disapproval.1) We know that citizens often feel their views are very poorly represented in policies on immigration. Then again, putting great weight on popular views about immigration may be unwise: those views are often hostile to immigration in general, and also, at the same time, often very badly informed. But regardless, this objection is a contingent one, and leaves open the deeper question: if the public did authorise selling citizenship, would there be anything wrong with doing so? 2. Perhaps admitting the kind of people who can afford to spend hundreds of thousands of Euros buying citizenship is unwise. Those (rich) people will probably turn out to wield disproportionate influence on domestic politics. I believe that we have every reason to fear their influence. But if this is so, it is not an objection to selling citizenship. It is an objection, surely, to granting citizenship to very rich individuals whether they pay for it or not. It would apply just as strongly to a policy which made it easier for rich individuals to access citizenship (free of charge). Less obviously, liberal democracies standardly grant automatic citizenship to the children of native citizens, some of whom also happen to inherit great wealth. Isn’t their wealth a problem too? Isn’t it just as large a danger to democracy? If so, what should we do? 1 ‘MaltaToday survey – Malta says yes to Budget, no to sale of citizenship’, Malta Today, 11 November 2013, available at https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/ news/data_and_surveys/31360/maltatoday-survey-budget-citizenship-20131111#.WtMg7HK-nZs