A detailed, in-depth summary of chapter 10 of the book Politics by Andrew Heywood. The summary includes all terms and definitions and is sufficient scope for an exam. This book is often used for first-year political science courses.
CHAPTER 10 – REPRESENTATION, ELECTIONS AND VOTING
- Do we elect the politicians who rule over us? Under what rules are these elections
held
- Democracy in practice
REPRESENTATION
- Deep political controversy, estates of realm
- Who should be represented? – based on competence, education, leisure to act wisely
etc
- Representation → relationship through which an individual or group stands for, or
acts on behalf of a larger body of people
- Now – political equality – one person = one vote
o Plural voting was abolished in the UK in 1949
o Women were enfranchised in Switzerland in 1971
o Racial criteria for voting were swept away in 1994 in South Africa
Theories of representation
- Not a single theory
- Does representative mean knowing better than the people
- John Stuart Mill
o UK philosopher, economist and politicians
o Had a mental collapse at the age of 20 because of his harsh upbringing
o On Liberty, Considerations on Representative Government
o Classical and modern liberalism – distrust of state intervention but emphasis
on quality individual life
Trustee model
- Edmund Burke – exercise of mature judgment and enlightened conscience
o Representation is a moral duty
- Trustee → a person who is vested with formal (usually also legal) responsibilities for
another’s property or affairs
- Your representative owes you
- Elitist implications – Mill
o Not all political opinions are of equal value
- Trusteeship portrays professional politicians as representatives
- Criticism
o Anti-democratic implications
o Little evidence that education gives people a broader sense of social
responsibility
o People are pursuing their own selfish interests
- Altruism → a concern for the welfare of others, based on either enlightened self-
interest, or recognition of a common humanity
- Thomas Paine
, o UK writer and revolutionary
o On the side of colonisers in the War of Independence
o Commitment to political liberty
o Common Sense, The Rights of Man, The Age of Representation
Delegate model
- Delegate is a person who acts as conduct conveying the views of others while having
little capacity to exercise his own interest
o Sales representatives, ambassadors – not authorised to think for themselves
- Delegate → a person who is chosen to act for another on the basis of clear guidance
and instruction, delegates do not think for themselves
- Initiative → a type of referendum through which the public is able to raise legislative
proposals
- Recall → a process whereby the electorate can be unsatisfactory public officials to
account and ultimately remove them
- Mandate → instruction or command from a higher body that demand compliance
- Provides broader opportunities for political representation and check self-serving
tendencies of politicians
- Popular sovereignty → the principle that there is no higher authority than the will of
the people (classical democracy)
- Disadvantages
o Fostering conflict
o Delegation limits the scope for leadership and statesmanship
Mandate model
- Elected on basis of personal qualities and talents
- Doctrine of the mandate → by winning the elections, the party gains a popular
mandate that authorizes it to carry out whatever policies or programmes it outlines
in the campaign
o Staying loyal to the party and its policies
o Importance of party labels
- Criticism
o Questionable model of voting behaviour – voters are not always rational
o People are interested in certain policies more than in others
o Doctrine imposes a straitjacket – no scope to adjust policies in the light to
changing circumstances (crises)
o The doctrine of the mandate can be applied only in the case of majoritarian
electoral system
- Manifesto → a document outlining the policies or programme a party proposes to
pursue if elected to power
Resemblance model
- Representatives are selected based on group representation
o Representing different society groups
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