Book
Not Just Speaking for Ourselves (under contract with Harvard University Press)
It is possible that, as you read this, there is someone out there standing in for you, speaking in your voice, acting in your stead, making agreements on your behalf, or conceding a point you might not have wanted them to. They are not your congressperson, your lawyer, or your spouse—nor anyone else authorized by means of a formal, corporately organized election or selection procedure. There is another sort of representative out there, someone you did not elect, someone you perhaps would not elect, of whom you may never have heard, speaking or acting on your behalf right now—they are an informal political representative.
Formal political representation is a familiar topic within democratic theory. Much less discussed, though no less widespread, is informal political representation: a practice in which a person speaks or acts for a group before an audience, despite never having been elected or selected to do so by means of a corporately organized election or selection procedure. Informal political representation is an everyday feature of our public communicative landscape. It is woven taut into the fabric of our political lives. Malala Yousafzai claims: “I speak not for myself, but so those without a voice can be heard.” U2 frontman Bono claims to “represent a lot of people who have no voice at all.” President Trump, before his nomination, was said “to give a voice to those who have long felt silenced."
The informal political representative, though neither elected nor selected, is ubiquitous and influential. They increase the visibility of marginalized and oppressed groups, give voice to interests not adequately expressed in formal political fora, influence public discourse, and serve as conduits between the represented and policymakers. They can, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., did in Montgomery, negotiate on a group’s behalf. But so far, few have attempted to provide a theory of this phenomenon that gives full attention to its normative foundations. Not Just Speaking for Ourselves provides a theory of informal political representation that does not treat the phenomenon as a mere deviant case of formal political representation, but rather takes informal political representation on its own terms.
Papers
Publications
Salkin, W. (accepted for publication). Democracy Within, Justice Without: The Duties of Informal Political Representatives. Noûs.
Salkin, W. (2021). The Conscription of Informal Political Representatives. Journal of Political Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12246
Salkin, W. (2020). Judicial Representation: Speaking for Others from the Bench. In I. Cohen, C. Shachar, A. Silvers, & M. Stein (Eds.), Disability, Health, Law, and Bioethics (pp. 211-220). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108622851.023
In Progress
"Ameliorative Legal Institutions"
"Speaking for Others From the Bench"
Untitled
"You Say I Want a Revolution" (for an upcoming special issue of The Monist on Du Bois and democracy)
Public Engagement
"Wendy Salkin on Informal Political Representation," in Myisha Cherry's Unmuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice (Oxford, 2020)
"Democracy Within, Justice Without: The Duties of Informal Political Representatives," Harvard Horizons Symposium, May 4, 2018
"Speaking for Others," Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences News, Dec. 12, 2017
"Wendy Salkin on Informal Representation," The UnMute Podcast, Oct. 3, 2017
My research has been generously supported by the following fellowships: the ACLS Fellowship (2021-2022), the Stanford Cultivating Humanities and Social Sciences Grant (2021-2024), the Clayman Institute for Gender Research Faculty Research Fellowship (2020-2021); the Collaborative Visiting Fellowship at the ConceptLab at the University of Oslo (June 2018); the Harvard Horizons Society Scholarship (2017-2018); the Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Graduate Fellowship at Boston University (2017-2018); the Dissertation Completion Fellowship at Harvard University (2017-2018); the Martin Fellowship at the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University (Spring 2017); the Student Fellowship at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School (2016-2017); the Graduate Fellowship in Ethics at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University (2015-2016); the Bioethics Bootcamp Fellowship at the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania (June 2014); and the Student Fellowship at the Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford Law School (2012-2013).
Not Just Speaking for Ourselves (under contract with Harvard University Press)
It is possible that, as you read this, there is someone out there standing in for you, speaking in your voice, acting in your stead, making agreements on your behalf, or conceding a point you might not have wanted them to. They are not your congressperson, your lawyer, or your spouse—nor anyone else authorized by means of a formal, corporately organized election or selection procedure. There is another sort of representative out there, someone you did not elect, someone you perhaps would not elect, of whom you may never have heard, speaking or acting on your behalf right now—they are an informal political representative.
Formal political representation is a familiar topic within democratic theory. Much less discussed, though no less widespread, is informal political representation: a practice in which a person speaks or acts for a group before an audience, despite never having been elected or selected to do so by means of a corporately organized election or selection procedure. Informal political representation is an everyday feature of our public communicative landscape. It is woven taut into the fabric of our political lives. Malala Yousafzai claims: “I speak not for myself, but so those without a voice can be heard.” U2 frontman Bono claims to “represent a lot of people who have no voice at all.” President Trump, before his nomination, was said “to give a voice to those who have long felt silenced."
The informal political representative, though neither elected nor selected, is ubiquitous and influential. They increase the visibility of marginalized and oppressed groups, give voice to interests not adequately expressed in formal political fora, influence public discourse, and serve as conduits between the represented and policymakers. They can, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., did in Montgomery, negotiate on a group’s behalf. But so far, few have attempted to provide a theory of this phenomenon that gives full attention to its normative foundations. Not Just Speaking for Ourselves provides a theory of informal political representation that does not treat the phenomenon as a mere deviant case of formal political representation, but rather takes informal political representation on its own terms.
Papers
Publications
Salkin, W. (accepted for publication). Democracy Within, Justice Without: The Duties of Informal Political Representatives. Noûs.
- Abstract: Informal political representation can be a political lifeline, particularly for oppressed and marginalized groups. Such representation can give these groups some say, however mediate, partial, and imperfect, in how things go for them. Coeval with the political goods such representation offers these groups are its particular dangers for them. Mindful of these dangers, skeptics challenge the practice for being, inter alia, unaccountable, unauthorized, inegalitarian, and oppressive. These challenges provide strong pro tanto reasons to think the practice morally impermissible. This paper considers the question: On what conditions is the informal political representation of oppressed and marginalized groups permissible? By responding to skeptics’ challenges, I develop a systematic account of moral constraints that, if adopted, would make such representation permissible. The account that emerges shows that informal political representatives (IPRs) must aim to fulfill two sets of sometimes conflicting duties to the represented: democracy within duties, which concern how the representative treats and relates to the represented, and justice without duties, which concern how the representative’s actions advance the aims of the representation.
Salkin, W. (2021). The Conscription of Informal Political Representatives. Journal of Political Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12246
- Abstract: Informal political representation—the phenomenon of speaking or acting on behalf of others although one has not been elected or selected to do so by means of a systematized election or selection procedure—plays a crucial role in advancing the interests of groups. Sometimes, those who emerge as informal political representatives (IPRs) do so willingly (voluntary representatives). But, often, people end up being IPRs, either in their private lives or in more public political forums, over their own protests (unwilling representatives) or even without their knowledge (unwitting representatives)—that is, they are conscripted. None of the few theories of informal political representation extant accommodate conscripted IPRs. The account detailed here introduces the phenomenon of conscripted informal political representation and explains its place in a complete theory of informal political representation. Conscripted IPRs can, like their voluntary counterparts, come to have significant power to influence how various audiences regard those for whom the conscripted IPRs speak or act. Upon attaining such power to influence, conscripted IPRs, like their voluntary counterparts, come to have pro tanto duties to those they represent—duties that arise despite IPRs’ unwittingness or unwillingness. Understanding the phenomenon of conscripted informal political representation allows us to surface essential normative questions about informal political representation that are otherwise occluded.
Salkin, W. (2020). Judicial Representation: Speaking for Others from the Bench. In I. Cohen, C. Shachar, A. Silvers, & M. Stein (Eds.), Disability, Health, Law, and Bioethics (pp. 211-220). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108622851.023
- Abstract: Being represented has value. When another speaks for me, they can give voice to my perspective or interests in fora where my perspective or interests might otherwise go unheard or even unspoken. They may give voice to interests which I do not know how to express or which I do not even know I have. Our traditional understanding of political representation is that it is an activity that takes place only or mostly in discrete and easily recognizable legislative fora – for instance, the Senate or the House of Representatives. But, if we instead think of political representation as a practice of speaking or acting for others that could, in theory, arise anywhere a person’s or a group’s interests arise, then it turns out that political representation may take place anywhere there is a speaker or an actor and an audience.
In Progress
"Ameliorative Legal Institutions"
- On legal institutions shaping the moral landscape and vice versa.
"Speaking for Others From the Bench"
- Judicial representation occurs when, by virtue of what a judge says from the bench they come to speak or act on behalf of the members of a group whose interests are at stake in a case. This paper introduces and develops the concept of judicial representation as it arises in contexts where the represented group's members are, in some sense, unable to speak for themselves. It then advances an account of what a judge must know in order to be a good judicial representative.
Untitled
- On race, racism, and justice.
"You Say I Want a Revolution" (for an upcoming special issue of The Monist on Du Bois and democracy)
- On political action.
Public Engagement
"Wendy Salkin on Informal Political Representation," in Myisha Cherry's Unmuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice (Oxford, 2020)
"Democracy Within, Justice Without: The Duties of Informal Political Representatives," Harvard Horizons Symposium, May 4, 2018
"Speaking for Others," Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences News, Dec. 12, 2017
"Wendy Salkin on Informal Representation," The UnMute Podcast, Oct. 3, 2017
My research has been generously supported by the following fellowships: the ACLS Fellowship (2021-2022), the Stanford Cultivating Humanities and Social Sciences Grant (2021-2024), the Clayman Institute for Gender Research Faculty Research Fellowship (2020-2021); the Collaborative Visiting Fellowship at the ConceptLab at the University of Oslo (June 2018); the Harvard Horizons Society Scholarship (2017-2018); the Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Graduate Fellowship at Boston University (2017-2018); the Dissertation Completion Fellowship at Harvard University (2017-2018); the Martin Fellowship at the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University (Spring 2017); the Student Fellowship at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School (2016-2017); the Graduate Fellowship in Ethics at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University (2015-2016); the Bioethics Bootcamp Fellowship at the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania (June 2014); and the Student Fellowship at the Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford Law School (2012-2013).