Autorentext

Hanna Fenichel Pitkin is a political theorist. She is a Professor Emerita of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Klappentext

"A brillant study, characterized by a closely-knit organization of ideas and by a well-written text fairly bristling with challenging insights. It is the most comprehensive--and very likely the best--book yet written on the concept of representation."--Polity "A major contribution to the study of representative government. . . . It is the special virtue of her work that so well defined an argument has room for so many issues and so much scholarship."--Political Science Quarterly "An outstanding contribution to professional knowledge . . . great enough to be required reading."--Journal of Politics "We are very fortunate in having such a thorough and philosophically well-informed treatment of the subject. . . .From now on this book can be expected to be the starting point for philosophical discussions of its subject." --Philosophical Quarterly

Zusammenfassung
Being concerned with representation, this book is about an idea, a concept, a word. It is primarily a conceptual analysis, not a historical study of the way in which representative government has evolved, nor yet an empirical investigation of the behavior of contemporary representatives or the expectations voters have about them.

Inhalt
Introduction

The Problem of Thomas Hobbes
Formalistic Views of Representation
"Standing For": Descriptive Representation
"Standing For": Symbolic Representation
Representing as "Acting For": The Analogies
The Mandate-Independence Controversy
Representing Unattached Interests: Burke
Representing People Who Have Interests: Liberalism
Political Representation

Appendix on Etymology
Notes
Bibliography
Index