Includes bibliographical references (pages 228-240) and index.

Is President George W. Bush a good or a bad representative? How about Russian President Vladimir Putin? Who is a better representative according to democratic standards: former Representative Tom DeLay or Senator Hillary Clinton? Contemporary political theorists do little, if anything, to help us answer such questions. Indeed, some treat citizens' preferences for representatives as sacrosanct, something that political theory should remain silent about. We need to identify democratic standards for selecting representatives because the legitimacy of a polity's democratic institutions depends on the representatives and citizens who make up that polity. What should democratic citizens look for in a representative? This book argues that democratic citizens need to evaluate representatives by their ability to settle political conflicts fairly and justly. And this requires attending to three virtues of democratic representation: good representatives are fair-minded; good representatives develop critical trust; and good representatives are good gatekeepers.

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