Representation in collective policymaking

We study a policy-motivated principal choosing a representative to bargain over one-dimensional policy in a collective body under majority rule. The representative’s ideology affects policy outcomes directly through their own proposal and indirectly by shaping the median’s expectations, determining which proposals pass. This creates a tradeoff: a representative close to the principal’s ideal point makes favorable proposals but permits extremist proposals to pass, while a more centrist representative constrains extremism by improving the median’s continuation value. We show that a wide range of principals strictly prefer representatives biased toward center rather than themselves. The optimal representative is unique for almost all principals, strictly increasing in the principal’s ideal point, and never biased away from center. We also study competitive representation with multiple principals choosing representatives.