Preface viii
Acknowledgments xi
1 Who is a Good Representative? 1An Ethics of Democratic Representation 6
The Proper Scope of an Ethics of Democratic Representation 9
Three Assumptions 14
The Theoretical Contribution of The Good Representative 17
Deliberative democracy 18
Descriptive representation for historically disadvantaged groups 21
The Structure of The Good Representative 23
2 Moving beyond Descriptive Representation 27Democratic Representation and Descriptive Representation 29
Two Problems with Descriptive Representation 34
Justifying the Silence about Criteria 36
The Need for Criteria 39
The Need for Democratic Standards 44
3 Democratic Advocacy and Good Democratic Representation 52The Scope of Democratic Representation 53
Sources of Authority for Democratic Representatives 62
Holding Democratic Representatives Accountable 65
Existing Standards for Identifying Bad Representatives 68
The interests of the constituents 69
Autonomy 71
Professional norms 72
Why Democratic Standards? 75
The importance of standards 78
The Importance of Function 81
Identifying the function of democratic representatives 84
Political advocacy 85
Democratic advocacy 88
The Three Virtues 90
Democracy and Democratic Citizens' Preferences 92
4 The Virtue of Fair-Mindedness 100Political Efficacy 101
Democratic Efficacy 104
Why Civic Equality? 105
The Meaning of Civic Equality 108
Using the First Virtue to Evaluate Representatives 114
Two Problems with the First Virtue 120
5 The Virtue of Critical Trust Building 124Democratic Representation and Participation 127
Problems with Evaluating Representatives by Citizen Participation 130
The Virtue of Critical Trust Building 134
Promoting Critical Trust 139
Problems with the Second Virtue 141
6 The Virtue of Good Gatekeeping 145Developing the Right Relationships 148
The Scope of Mutual Relations 155
The Virtue of Good Gatekeeping 161
Political opponents 162
The dispossessed 164
The marginalized 167
A Perspective of Exclusion 170
Problems with the Third Virtue 174
Conclusion 177
7 Preferable Democratic Representatives: Real-World Political Virtues 179Preferability and the Virtues 182
Preferability and System-Dependency 183
Are Good Descriptive Representatives Good Democratic Representatives? 185
Choosing among the Virtues 190
Bad Democratic Representatives 196
Notes 201
References 228
Index 241
Suzanne Dovi is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Arizona. Her research interests include democratic theory, representation (especially the representation of historically disadvantaged groups), feminist theory, and normative concepts such as hypocrisy, guilt, and despair. Her work has appeared in American Political Science Review, Constellations, Journal of Politics, and Polity.
This book provides an excellent 'yardstick' to aid in the application of democratic theory?addresses potential problems?and discusses the realities of selecting 'good enough' representatives. (Choice) The Good Representative is a real service not just to the scholarly community but to general readers and ordinary citizens. Dovi puts forth clear criteria for judging those who aspire to speak in our name and defends them with vigor and clarity but always in just the civil and inclusive tone that she calls for in politicians. This is a comprehensive and careful work of synthesis, pulling together material from ethics, political science, and democratic theory that is not often mastered by one author, but it is something more: a work of true originality that will make even those who think they they know all the arguments about representation think again. Andrew Sabl, Harvard University
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