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Representing Diversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2004

ROBERT E. GOODIN
Affiliation:
Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

Abstract

‘Mirror representation’ or a ‘politics of presence’ presupposes relatively modest levels of diversity among those being represented. If the groups to be represented are too numerous, internally too heterogeneous or too cross-cutting, too many representatives will be required for the assembly to remain a deliberative one where ‘presence’ can have the effects its advocates desire. In those circumstances, what is being represented ought be conceptualized as the ‘sheer fact of diversity’ rather than ‘all the particularities of the diversity among us’. The appropriate response to that is legislative reticence.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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