Brad DeLong wrote:
> The combination of revocable appointments and binding mandates seems
> to make Marx's concept of representation the opposite of Madison's
> (or Burke's)--according to whom our representatives are supposed to
> be smarter than we are, better informed with better judgment, and do
> what we would do with our values and interests if we knew as much and
> had thought as much about the situation as they have. Madison thought
> that progress in the science of government--the principles of
> representation, separation of powers, and an independent judiciary
> (coupled with modest restrictions on the male franchise)--allowed
> modern democracies to avoid the
> today-a-demagogue-persuaded-the-Assembly-to-order-the-execution-of-all-mal
> es-in-Mytilene
> problem.
.
This is way too generous to Madison. If you read Federalist 10 you see that
when he worried about the tyranny of the majority he was thinking more of
the rights of property being violated than the rights of all males in
Mytilene.
http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/federalist/feder10.html
Seth