ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of the legislative assembly in a democratic process regulated by the choice of aims model of citizenship and committed to the advancement of citizens' interests in collective features of society and political equality. It also discusses the methods by which the aims citizens choose are transmitted to the legislature. The electoral system performs this function. The chapter elaborates basic principles for evaluating electoral and legislative systems. The chapter provides a defense of party list proportional representation as the best system for electing and organizing the legislature. The mam division in conceptions of political responsibility is between the formalist and substantive accounts. These two accounts, which are concerned with the basis of political responsibility, define the primacy of citizens to legislators differently. But the scheme of legislative representation does not solve all of these difficulties. Institutions regulating interest groups and political parties must supplement the salutary effects of proportional representation.
