Reclaiming the Public defines and defends the intrinsic value of “the public” that resides in our public institutions and the officials that run them. The book argues that public institutions do not simply act for us but instead speak and act in our name; i.e., they represent us. Representation requires that decisions made by public institutions or officials are consistent with the perspectives of citizens. If the decisions satisfy this requirement, these decisions are attributable to citizens, and citizens can be held responsible for them. This theory of political authority accounts for major features of our legal system, such as the non-instrumental grounds for the separation of law-making powers, the non-instrumental value of constitutions, the limits of privatization, the nature and value of public property, and the impermissibility of using artificial intelligence in setting certain policies and making certain decisions.

‘Reclaiming the Public develops an account of the distinctively public nature of legal and political institutions: institutions qualify as public only if they speak and act in the name of their constituents. Dorfman and Harel develop this striking idea to provide novel analysis of many of the hardest questions of contemporary political life, including representation, privatization, public ownership, and algorithmic decision making.’

Arthur Ripstein - University Professor, University of Toronto

‘With longstanding democracies under threat from authoritarians, Reclaiming the Public fills an urgent need for an account of popular sovereignty that explains what it means for government to be, in Abraham Lincoln’s phrasing, not just for the people, but by and of them as well. In offering a brief against technocracy and privatization, Avihay Dorfman and Alon Harel also thereby harden the public sphere against those who seek to rule in the name of making the trains run on time.’

Michael C. Dorf - Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law, Cornell Law School

‘Reclaiming the Public advances an original account of how political and legal institutions can speak for those they represent, and why that matters. This insightful book makes an important contribution to our understanding of political authority and legitimacy. It also sheds new light on issues of great current concern, such as the privatization of government functions and the role of artificial intelligence in official decision-making. Dorfman and Harel’s penetrating discussion of the moral distinctiveness of public institutions should be read by anyone interested in the deep normative questions raised by contemporary political and legal practices.’

Daniel Viehoff - Associate Professor of Philosophy, New York University