The Problem of Representative Agency

This chapter sheds light on private actors that have the standing or capacity to exercise certain forms of power or make certain decisions in terms of representative agency. It discusses a novel account of the conditions that an agent must meet in order to act or speak in the name of another known as the internalist account of representative agency. It also points out how qua private actors from public institutions systematically fail to act even when private actors act under valid democratic authorization. The chapter elaborates how private actors fail to meet the demands of the representation condition on legitimate exercise. It explains what extent private actors meet the representation condition, confirming if they can truly act in the name of the people whom a government is meant to represent.