•  75
    You Say I Want a Revolution
    The Monist 107 (1): 39-56. 2024.
    An underexamined insight of W. E. B. Du Bois’s John Brown is that John Brown worked for much of his life to cultivate democratic relationships with the Black Americans with and for whom he worked. Brown did so through practicing deference and deliberation, and by seeking authorization. However, Brown’s commitment to these practices faltered at a crucial moment in decision making: when he raided Harpers Ferry absent widespread support. Examining this aspect of John Brown brings into relief an ove…Read more
  •  36
    From Booker T. Washington to a neighbor who speaks up at a city council meeting, many of the people who represent us were never elected. Wendy Salkin provides the first systematic analysis of the ubiquitous phenomenon of informal political representation, a practice of immense political value that raises serious ethical concerns.
  •  109
    Speaking for Others from the Bench
    Legal Theory 29 (2): 151-184. 2023.
    In this article, I introduce and examine the novel concept of bench representation. Jurists and scholars have extensively examined whether judges are or ought to be considered symbolic representatives of abstract concepts (for instance, the law, equality, or justice), representatives of society as a whole, or descriptive representatives of the social groups from which they hail. However, little attention has been paid to the question whether judges act as representatives for the parties before t…Read more
  •  43
    The Conscription of Informal Political Representatives
    Journal of Political Philosophy 29 (4): 429-455. 2021.
    Journal of Political Philosophy, Volume 29, Issue 4, Page 429-455, December 2021.
  •  368
    Informal political representation can be a political lifeline, particularly for oppressed and marginalized groups. Such representation can give these groups some say, however mediate, partial, and imperfect, in how things go for them. Coeval with the political goods such representation offers these groups are its particular dangers to them. Mindful of these dangers, skeptics challenge the practice for being, inter alia, unaccountable, unauthorized, inegalitarian, and oppressive. These challenges…Read more
  •  289
    The Conscription of Informal Political Representatives
    Journal of Political Philosophy 29 (4): 429-455. 2021.
    Informal political representation—the phenomenon of speaking or acting on behalf of others although one has not been elected or selected to do so by means of a systematized election or selection procedure—plays a crucial role in advancing the interests of groups. Sometimes, those who emerge as informal political representatives (IPRs) do so willingly (voluntary representatives). But, often, people end up being IPRs, either in their private lives or in more public political forums, over their own…Read more
  •  87
    It is possible that, as you read this, there is someone out there standing in for you, speaking in your voice, acting in your stead, making agreements on your behalf, or conceding a point you might not have wanted them to. They are not your congressperson, your lawyer, or your spouse—nor anyone else authorized by means of a formal, corporately organized election or selection procedure. There is another sort of representative out there, someone you did not elect, someone you perhaps would not ele…Read more