The Politics of Presence

Phillips does a good job of raising some important and often ignored problems about representation and presence in her book. I originally read this for a feminist political theory class as a graduate student, and hope to go back and read it again. Her discussions of what representation means and looks like in contemporary US politics is excellent and brings home the problems of "representative" democracy when those elected to represent do not in fact do that, and perhaps, as many scholars have argued, never can. An excellent read for anyone interested in feminist scholarship, social equality issues, political representation and accountability in modern politics.

English writer Anne Phillips is among the best feminist political thinkers of our time. In The Politics of Presence, she develops a major issue present in some of her previous books, notably Engendering Democracy and Democracy & Difference: the shift in democratic thought, when the politics of ideas (where the identity of representatives is not a concern) is challenging by a politics of presence. Since Hanna Pitkin's famous attack on what she called "descriptive representation", in the sixties, political theorists usually see the search for typical representation-that is, the parliament as a microcosm or mirror of the whole society-as a minor task. The question was not "who" the representatives are, but "which interests" they defend. Enhancing their accountability was the way to improve democracy. This view was compatible with the hegemonic liberal affirmation of "equality before the law", regardless the individual's identity. And compatible, too, with Socialist analysis, both Marxist and social democrat, that saw political access as dependent on changes in social and economic conditions. As Ms Phillips shows, this view was challenged by an alternative politics of presence, which emerged with the demands for the political inclusion of silenced or excluded groups, specially women and ethnic minorities. These groups don't judge "equality before the law" is enough; and they are not willing to wait for always-postponed structural changes. With such demands for political equality, they focalize on institutional mechanisms that could achieve more immediate change in their life's condition. Thus, political equality is now a crucial issue in political battles. However, this approach to democrat reform is not free of problems, and The Politics of Presence extensively discusses such problems. A mirror legislature gives no certainty about protecting minority's interests; accountability mechanisms can't be dispensed. And more, determining which social cleavages, among countless ones, deserve to be considered in order to promote fair representation is a controversial issue. The book studies a number of cases that illustrate some of these difficulties-electoral quotas for women in Europe, race-conscious districting in the USA, and Canadian politics, emphasizing the problems of Quebec and native population. Clearly written, full of intelligence and passion, The Politics of Presence is a valuable book to anyone who wants to think about contemporary challenges of democracy.