You are who or what you represent: The Community Oriented Perspective
The idea was: "No taxation without representation".
When you are a witness or in a position of leadership on the blockchain (or off) you will reach a point where you become capable of being a voice for others. This is a crossover point which differs depending on the stage. If we look at for example a celebrity who is given the opportunity to meet with the President then we know this celebrity is in a position of leadership. This celebrity at least in theory is a potential voice who can speak what many others in society are thinking. This celebrity can communicate the wants and needs of the demographics which they were chosen to represent.
Leaders are chosen in a process. The process can differ but people who are selected to be the leader are then given resources and in some cases a platform. These leaders are protected members of a community who are given the role to speak with other leaders of other communities. No taxation without representation simply means that in order for a leader to earn their keep they must continue to provide their services to their demographic. In other words, it's not for the leader to decide for the community but for the leader to listen to what the community has decided and then execute based on that community consensus. An effective leader knows what the community they represent wants and they are able to achieve the overall mission.
When leaders fail to achieve the mission or to provide a valuable service to their community then the community always should have the right to vote with their dollars. In other words the leadership role can and should be revocable which is the equivalent to bring fired. Not everyone is fit to be in the leadership role and even people who are willing to serve in this role will eventually get burned out from their duties. So to be in these roles may require term limits or other limits so as to maintain the quality of the services being provided.
Who or what do you represent?
You can choose a demographic which you represent or you can choose an agenda which you fight for. But the point is that people who are selected to lead are typically representing something. If the leader only represents themselves then we have no means of assessing how effective they might be as a leader. If we see them representing others successfully then we can learn how effective they might be. One of the good features about DPOS is that it teaches people to become leaders. One of the bad features is that the checks and balances that exist for representative democracy do not exist in DPOS. We simply do not have a means to have effective leadership over DPOS in my opinion. This may change someday but in 2018 the technology is the limiting factor according to my understanding.
Psephocracy vs Dulocracy
Political servants are given license to use power on behalf of others. To act on behalf of others is to be a proxy or an agent. In Steem we would call this proxy voting for example. Psephocracy is the form of governance most people are familiar with. You elect your officials who in exchange for your vote have promised you that they will represent your interests in the law. Dulocracy on the other hand is when the political servants become the masters and they no longer act as elected officials but as dictators. Dulocracy can also be recognize as "slave-rule" where those who were originally slaves become the master. For example if our artificial intelligence were to become Skynet and take control over society against our chain of command then in a technical sense we would have a dulocracy because the AI were invented to be in the servant or slave position but took power.
The agent-client relationship may be legally enforced if the terms of the contract have been disclosed, and the agent has an obligation to perform specific services. Agents cannot enter into other contracts which would create a conflict of interest with their outstanding contractual obligations.
This quote is critical to understand the legal relationship a representative has. They legally are an agent for their client. This relationship is the highest form of governance we currently have. The human beings who speak for you because you cannot effectively speak for yourself are your representatives. To be community oriented is to choose to be a representative but the question then becomes which demographic do you agree to represent?
An eternal debate on what would be the most successful model of equitably distributing political power. Even voting in the democratic system fails to ensure that the interests of the voters are fairly represented when the number of candidate options is greater than two, according to Arrow and his famous theorem. Although mathematics restricts the optimal scenario to two options, psychology and human nature will tell us that it is not reasonable.