The Two Sides of the Representative Coin
<p>In<em> Federalist </em>10 James Madison drew a functional distinction between “parties” (advocates for factional interests) and “judgment” (decision-making for the public good) and warned of the corrupting effect of combining both functions in a “single body of men.” This paper...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Brock University
2011-12-01
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| Series: | Studies in Social Justice |
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| Online Access: | http://ojs.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/SSJ/article/view/3492 |
| _version_ | 1818515620453416960 |
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| author | Keith Sutherland |
| author_facet | Keith Sutherland |
| author_sort | Keith Sutherland |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>In<em> Federalist </em>10 James Madison drew a functional distinction between “parties” (advocates for factional interests) and “judgment” (decision-making for the public good) and warned of the corrupting effect of combining both functions in a “single body of men.” This paper argues that one way of overcoming “Madisonian corruption” would be by restricting political parties to an advocacy role, reserving the judgment function to an allotted (randomly-selected) microcosm of the whole citizenry, who would determine the outcome of parliamentary debates by secret ballot—a division of labour suggested by James Fishkin’s experiments in deliberative polling. The paper then defends this radical constitutional proposal against Bernard Manin’s (1997) claim that an allotted microcosm could not possibly fulfil the “consent” requirement of Natural Right theory. Not only does the proposal challenge Manin’s thesis, but a 28<sup>th</sup> Amendment implementing it would finally reconcile the competing visions that have bedevilled representative democracy since the Constitutional Convention of 1787.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T00:31:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-23047828a1b04fb98d3d9c01eb27a91a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1911-4788 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T00:31:10Z |
| publishDate | 2011-12-01 |
| publisher | Brock University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Studies in Social Justice |
| spelling | doaj.art-23047828a1b04fb98d3d9c01eb27a91a2022-12-22T01:27:20ZengBrock UniversityStudies in Social Justice1911-47882011-12-0152197211The Two Sides of the Representative CoinKeith Sutherland<p>In<em> Federalist </em>10 James Madison drew a functional distinction between “parties” (advocates for factional interests) and “judgment” (decision-making for the public good) and warned of the corrupting effect of combining both functions in a “single body of men.” This paper argues that one way of overcoming “Madisonian corruption” would be by restricting political parties to an advocacy role, reserving the judgment function to an allotted (randomly-selected) microcosm of the whole citizenry, who would determine the outcome of parliamentary debates by secret ballot—a division of labour suggested by James Fishkin’s experiments in deliberative polling. The paper then defends this radical constitutional proposal against Bernard Manin’s (1997) claim that an allotted microcosm could not possibly fulfil the “consent” requirement of Natural Right theory. Not only does the proposal challenge Manin’s thesis, but a 28<sup>th</sup> Amendment implementing it would finally reconcile the competing visions that have bedevilled representative democracy since the Constitutional Convention of 1787.</p>http://ojs.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/SSJ/article/view/3492democracyrepresentationMadison |
| spellingShingle | Keith Sutherland The Two Sides of the Representative Coin Studies in Social Justice democracy representation Madison |
| title | The Two Sides of the Representative Coin |
| title_full | The Two Sides of the Representative Coin |
| title_fullStr | The Two Sides of the Representative Coin |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Two Sides of the Representative Coin |
| title_short | The Two Sides of the Representative Coin |
| title_sort | two sides of the representative coin |
| topic | democracy representation Madison |
| url | http://ojs.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/SSJ/article/view/3492 |
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