ABSTRACT
The theoretical foundations of representation date back before the nation's founding, with James Madison, drawing from seventeenth-century philosophers, famously warning about the "violence of faction" in Federalist 10. Madison understood that a representative democratic system would be endangered by groups that had power to run over the wishes of those who did not. Pluralist models of democracy predict that ordinary individuals will have power over elites through the pressure exerted by organized interests. A recent study of attitudes about poverty in the United Kingdom found that most respondents thought about global poverty in terms of providing charity, which reinforces a power dynamic where wealthy nations are in a position to give, and poor nations are in a position to take. The study's authors argue that such a disempowering rhetorical and cognitive model is problematic and that one solution is for antipoverty actors and groups to address the roots of global poverty so that there is a creation story.
