The Avatars of virtual representation: an assessment of the Burkean notion's contemporary relevance

Abstract

This article examines the way in which contemporary recent research on virtual representation has taken up both Edmund Burke's original articulation of the concept, and its important complications. The conceptual structure of virtual representation cannot by itself edify us on its potential, and its normative and institutional implications are best understood within two distinct approaches to democracy and representation: an adversarial democracy account, or a tradition of unitary representation.