ABSTRACT

The representation of interests is the best way to recognize particularity. Indeed we always seem to be attempting to represent interests while never being able to fully get at them. Instead we attempt to find and adopt acceptable proxies for interests. As we have seen, geography poses serious problems for ascertaining and organizing interests. It also mires us in districting disputes that seem to have no acceptable resolution. Even Iris Marion Young’s social perspective held by a structural group is a proxy for interests. So long as the representation of social perspective (even pluralized perspectives for a given group) mutes intra-group difference, social perspective may not be that much more effective than geography or identity for getting at what most matters politically to the members of a polity.