Speaking for Others: The Ethics of Informal Political Representation
Harvard University Press, July 2024

Political representation is typically assumed to be the purview of formal institutions and elected officials. But many of the people who represent us are not senators or city counselors—think of Martin Luther King, Jr., or Malala Yousafzai, or even a neighbor who speaks up at a school board meeting. Informal political representatives are in fact ubiquitous, often powerful, and some bear enormous responsibility. In Speaking for Others, political philosopher Wendy Salkin develops the first systematic conceptual and moral analysis of informal political representation.

Praise: “A very impressive achievement. Salkin has opened up exciting new territory for investigation and will have to be cited in all future work about informal political representation.” —Elizabeth Anderson, author of Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic Against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back