Symposium: James S. Fishkin, Democracy When the People Are Thinking

Abstract

Jim Fishkin's important book sets out a number of challenges to the conventional wisdom of political scientists and lawyers (and, for that matter, pundits and politicians) about what would count as serious “reform” of a now much-criticized system of elections and political representation within the United States and elsewhere. Drawing from both ancient Athens and the findings of contemporary political philosophy and empirical political science, Fishkin's work is essential reading for anyone interested in the health of our polities, at home and abroad, especially as they come under ever more challenges that are calling the maintenance of liberal constitutionalism into doubt.