‘Thinking Where I Am Not’: Aversive Judgment in Political Representation

Abstract

In the constructivist approach, political representation is conceived as a creative activity that implies the role of a judging audience. However, the role of judgment within representation remains under-theorized. This paper foregrounds the role of the imagination in judgment as a necessary supporter of the constructivist effects of representation that not only contribute to the constitution of political identities but also induce a particular relation toward political reality. First, this paper examines the place of judgment in the constructivist conception of representation. Next, it focuses on Hannah Arendt's theory of judgment and on efforts to apply it to political representation. While these previous attempts rightly point out the affinities between the constructivist understanding of representation and Arendt's understanding of political reality as a contingent domain of appearances, they have not sufficiently considered the place of judgment within the power relations of representative politics. The final part claims that judgment must be considered both on the side of the representatives and the represented and advances an aversive reading of judgment that emphasizes an open approach to the perception of political reality.