Thinking for Thousands

Emerson's Theory of Political Representation in the Public Sphere

Bibliographic Data

ID6231743
AuthorsHans Von Rautenfeld (University of South Carolina, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume49
Issue1
Pages184-197
Publication date2005-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.0092-5853.2005.00119.x
OpenAlexW1999293687
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited30

This article develops Emerson's theory of representative democracy as it applies to a deliberative public sphere. By highlighting the democratic content of Emerson's thought, this article challenges tradition readings of Emerson that claim his thought to be elitist or antipolitical. According to Emerson, the public sphere is structured by representative individuals who are analogous to those representatives found in electoral institutions. These representatives make public the beliefs and values present in their “constituencies.” They deliberate in the name of their constituencies, saying what their constituencies could and would say, were they to also directly engage in such deliberations. Representative individuals are tied to their constituencies through bonds of “sympathy and likeness.” The moral consequences of a representative public sphere include the development of a sense of deliberative justice on the part of the citizenry and the reduction of the possibility of domination and oppression by ideologically oriented elites

Deliberative democracy · Democracy · Economic Justice · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ideology · Oppression · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Representation (politics · Sociology · Sympathy · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · Law · Philosophy · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education · Psychology · Social Psychology