Restoring Real Representation

Popular representation, seen by constitutional founders including James Madison as the pivot of republicanism, has been gradually ritualized and discounted. Robert Grady maintains that contemporary pluralist theory devalues citizens' civic roles and reduces elections to symbolic exercises. In its more recent incarnations as interest group liberalism and corporatism, he believes, pluralism undercuts the grounds for real representation in favor of representation for the organized and privileged.
In Restoring Real Representation, Grady argues for restoration of real citizen representation through democratic functional jurisdictions rather than by means of the usual electoral and political party reforms. In fact, he says, many critics of contemporary politics have proposed reforms that inadequately account for constitutional principles. Analyzing pluralist, corporatist, and participatory theory, Grady shows how these jurisdictions - principally the workplace community, but, by extension, other ethnic, religious, and geographic associations - can serve as constituent organizations for participation and reaffirm the pivotal role of representation.