User:American Lautaro/Representative democracy/Zraerobertson Peer Review

General info

 * Whose work are you reviewing?

American Lautaro


 * Link to draft you're reviewing
 * User:American Lautaro/sandbox
 * Link to the current version of the article (if it exists) Representative democracy

Evaluate the drafted changes
Detailed, useful article that includes great summaries of otherwise difficult principles. The Bernard Manin section is particularly impressive, and I would seek to refer to this article myself. My suggestions below are largely centered around separation of particular concepts (mechanisms versus values, for example) or slight wording changes. It was fantastic overall though!


 * 1) Lead: The first sentence in the lead is great. I think the second sentence could use a bit of rearrangement because it is suggesting both mechanisms as well as principles. For example, it may be useful to separate it into "The mechanism of elections is normally used to fulfill the aims of representative government and is supplemented by _. Some values associated with representative government include _."  I would also probably eliminate the second person, even though I personally like this style, to keep it as encyclopedic as possible.
 * 2) Definitions and Theory: The "repeated character of elections" portion may benefit from the inclusion of a reference to Mayhew's theory of reelection or a little further discussion of how elected representatives "anticipate they will be punished electorally". Though I appreciate the succinct explanation, a little bit more may be useful here for those unfamiliar. I agree that adding a photo in the polyarchy section would be helpful, but your description is well done. Perhaps a little further clarification could be added to this section in elucidating the other corners (ie alternatives to representative government). Also, more of just a question for myself, does Dahl mention the actual need for elections anywhere?
 * 3) History: I think the second sentence could potentially use some rewording-- "political elites endorsed representative government because it married social contract theory and popular democratic principles while allowing the maintenance of an aristocratic class". Maybe not the aristocratic part but just a suggestion. This section also has some variable capitalization-- sometimes representative government is capitalized and sometimes it isn't. Nice discussion on the evolution of party.
 * 4) Controversies and Debates: I am not sure where this is from, but I think a mix between a delegate and a trustee is a politico; this term is used to describe modern American legislators (or at least was in my high school government class). The representative government and democracy section is really interesting, and it could be potentially helpful to include Aristotle's original line that says that elections are aristocratic. This section is great as is, but it might be useful to include other pushback to Urbinati's argument, maybe by consolidating the next "On the Necessity of Election" section to add Landemore's views here.