As long as politics is equated with government and government regarded as a means for achieving private purposes and reconciling conflicting private claims in a generally acceptable manner, rightly designed representative institutions may serve its purposes very well. But if its real function is to direct our shared public life and its real value lies in the opportunity to share in power over and responsibility for what we jointly as a society are doing then no one else can do my politics "for" me and representation can mean only the exclusion of most people from its benefits most of the time.