  In this paper we show how to construct inner and outer convex approximations
of a polytope from an approximate cone factorization of its slack matrix. This
provides a robust generalization of the famous result of Yannakakis that
polyhedral lifts of a polytope are controlled by (exact) nonnegative
factorizations of its slack matrix. Our approximations behave well under
polarity and have efficient representations using second order cones. We
establish a direct relationship between the quality of the factorization and
the quality of the approximations, and our results extend to generalized slack
matrices that arise from a polytope contained in a polyhedron.
