theoretical analysis or definition. Urbinati ’ s handling of populism is deft and enlightening, illustrating how populists remix key democratic ideas such as representation and popular will at the expense of democracy’s institu- tional life. An ambitious work such as Democracy Disfigured naturally opens some theoretical doors in the process of closing others. Urbinati, for example, considers each of the challenges to self-government as the recurrent out- growths of democratic politics. How, then, do we know that Urbinati’s proce- dural conception of democracy is the core or true conception of democracy’s figure rather than those rival conceptions of democracy and democratic life? Perhaps procedural democracy is the right conception of democracy by virtue of some criteria external to the democratic process itself. But if this is correct, what is particularly undemocratic about the epistemic or consequentialist theories that place the existence of those criteria at the core of their political theories? This is just one of the fascinating questions raised by this challenging book. In other words, Democracy Disfigured is a success, repaying careful attention to its original treatments of works and problems drawn from the full history of democratic practice and theory. ALEXANDER S. KIRSHNER Duke University American Public Opinion, Advocacy, and Policy in Congress: What the Public Wants and What It Gets by Paul Burstein. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2014. 244 pp. Cloth, $80.00; paper, $27.99. The title of this book sums up what it covers. Paul Burstein addresses the fundamental question of representative democracy: does the public get what it wants from government? He is not the first to do so, but he is the first to do what he does in this book. Burstein identifies a random sample of policy proposals introduced in Congress and then assesses the influence of both public opinion and interest group advocacy on their passage. Do members of Congress represent public opinion when acting on the sample of policy proposals? Do they respond to interest group pressure? Burstein provides surprising answers that challenge the way we think about democracy in America. It is an empirical book, and the methodology that Burstein employs is its real strength. His approach involves defining and measuring “policy pro- posals” as distinct from bills, as each proposal can be introduced in different BOOK REVIEWS | 555 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/psq/article/130/3/555/6846170 by guest on 13 January 2023