Diversity and Expertise in Representative Governance

Representative democracy is a widespread and essential part of democratic governance. However, some question whether representation can be really made democratic and others worry that representative institutions are becoming illegitimate. Our understanding of representative democracy has been largely shaped by the triumph of elections that vest peripheral access to power through episodical polls. How would representative democracy look under different selection rules? Moving beyond the one-person-one-vote slogan, this thesis explores alternative methods for selecting representatives. Building on social choice theory, applied probability, statistics, and political philosophy, it investigates both epistemic and procedural aspects of these selection rules in an attempt to reflect on foundational principles on which we could build a renewed case for representative democracy as democratic governance.

Committee:

Ali Jadbabaie (supervisor)

Eric Beerbhom

Adam Berinsky

Munther Dahleh

Ariel Proccacia