In Democracy Disfigured, Nadia Urbinati provides a compelling defence of representative democracy. Against those who see representative democracy as the second best form of democracy, and as a compromise that democrats should unwillingly accept, Urbinati claims that representative democracy has its own nature (or figure) that makes it superior to any other form of democracy, and that the best defence of its value beyond collective authorization should be based on a proceduralist vision of democracy.