Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? Essay (Book Review)

The article “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent “Yes,” written by Jane Mansbridge, is aimed at discussing the feasibility of the demonstration of specific population groups’ problems by their respective members. More specifically, it addresses the accompanying challenges such as the failure to solve the issues, which are typical for these citizens, and their worsening relationships with others. They are considered through the lens of four contexts, which are group mistrust, uncrystallized interests, historical political subordination, and low de facto legitimacy. In other words, the inadequacy of communication within the community and the absence of essential knowledge on the issues, which are to be resolved, are directly connected to political affairs. They lead to an insufficient descriptive representation of the affected persons among officials and the lack of participation at the legislative level. In the end, the author concludes on the significance of their involvement in this area while claiming the benefits of the contextual approach. In contrast to other methods of evaluating the needs of minorities, it allows developing the initiatives to satisfy them.