Deliberation and Judgment
As we suggested above, one of the most important inspirations for rethinking political representation within electoral democracy has been the increasingly sophisticated emphasis on deliberation within democracy. From this perspective, representation induces and forms relationships of judgment that enable democracy, some of which may be formalized by election, and others of which may work through group advocacy, voice, the media, or indeed, representative claims by any number of actors from both within and outside institutionalized politics (Rosanvallon 1998). Intrinsic to these processes of judgment is what Urbinati (2006) calls indirectness in politics— the representation of citizens’ judgments to them by their representative and vice versa— through which the demos reflects on itself and judges its laws, institutions, and leaders (see also Ankersmit 2002).