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Summary of political representation and its challenges: lectures and literature
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Summary Political Representation and its challengesCollege 1
Representare: a delegated action of behalf on someone else (Urbinati, 2011).
The people are sovereign, but in representative democracy, authority and legitimacy that relies on
consent, rather than direct presence. Representation occurs through political parties mandated
through elections.
The chain of representation by Rohrschreider and Thomassen (2020):
The quality of representation is not always given:
- Are all citizens equally well represented?
- Are citizens with lower incomes represented just as well as richer ones?
- What about the access of immigrants to political office?
- Does the underrepresentation of women matter for political substance?
Certain practices, such as clientelism can distort the chain of representation. Clientelism: politicians
give people very direct reasons to vote for them, for example if you vote for me I will build this
school.
But also phenomena like the pandemic can disfigure political representation. Globalization and the
supranationalization of representation also affect the linkage between citizens and policy-makers.
Representation is not just about voting for politicians. Representation can also occur through
different channels, like protesting, trade unions and informal representation.
Representation is often studied using quantitative, statistical methods, but also qualitative methods
are important tools.
College 2
Inequality in Representation: Are the Poor and Lower-Educated Equally Well Represented?
The concept of representation:
Hanna Pitkin and the concept of representation:
Representation is “the making present of something which is nevertheless not literally present”
(Pitkin, 1967). If you represent a certain group of people, you don’t allow them to be there. Citizens
take part, but by representing them, they don’t take part. This is the paradox of representation:
citizens take part in political decision-making by not actually taking part. Representation is about the
aggregation and deliberation of public interests. If you have a million of people, you can’t really make
decisions without people who represent. Representation can also be done by nonstate actors, like
NGO’s, traditional actors, interest groups. There is all forms of representation. “Representation,
according to Pitkin, can be done by parties, governments nut also non-state actors such as
international, transnational, and non-governmental organizations as well as courts, interest groups,
lobbyists, and social movements” (Dovi, 2015 )
,Pitkin had four concepts of representation:
1. Formalistic representation, electoral representation
Institutions that enable representation: how the representative obtains her
representative position of authority and how the electorate can hold the representative
accountable.
2. Substantive representative representation: making policy that is in line with what people that
voted for them want.
The actions a representative takes to represent it constituents interests
3. Descriptive representation: the representative resembles the electorate
Whether or the degree to which a representative resembles the electorate/those
represented
4. Symbolic representation: feeling represented in a symbolic way. In a crisis, for example, you
can really feel represented by the king, even though he is not elected.
What a representative symbolizes and how the represented feel about this (how king can
be perceived to “stand for his country” in pivotal moments)
Electoral representation:
This fits the dominant idea that representation happens through elections. People chose people that
represent them through political parties. It is prospective representation: you look forward to what
you want the representative to do for you. After the years served you can reward or punish the
politician for their handling by voting or not voting for them again. You vote for someone who has a
good plan.
Research had focused on the question how representation work under different types of institutions:
- Electoral systems
- Parliamentary, presidential or semi-presidential systems
- Unicameral or bicameral legislatures
- Supranational institutions of representation like the European Parliament
Discussing the readings:
Soroka:
1. What approach? Substantive
2. How does this approach work in theory?
3. Why or in which circumstances is this approach important/superior according to the
authors?
4. How does this form of representation work in practice?
Mansbridge:
1. What approach? Descriptive representation
2. How does this approach work in theory?
3. Why or in which circumstances is this approach important/superior according to the
authors?
4. How does this form of representation work in practice?
Minoritized groups: there are as much women as men, but women have less power, so they are
minoritized.
De Wilde:
5. What approach? Substantive representative representation
6. How does this approach work in theory? Comparing election promises to what actually
happens
, 7. Why or in which circumstances is this approach important/superior according to the
authors?
8. How does this form of representation work in practice? Sinn Féin
Soroka, S. N., & Wlezien, C. (2010). Degrees of Democracy: Politics, Public opinion, and Policy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Chapters 1 and 2 (pp. 1-42).
Chapter 1: public opinion and policy in representative democracy
In his mind, an elected representative should seek and consider the advice of his constituents, but
that advice should not be authoritative instruction. The situation is little changed more than two
hundred years later. Active representation of the public’s policy preferences remains a – if not the –
central concern in electoral and inter-electoral politics.
For theorists the connection between public preferences and public policy is one of the most critical
components of representative democracy. both “policy representation” and “public responsiveness”
are evident.
Thermostatic model: The model has as its referent the temperature control systems in our homes,
where the public is the thermostat and policymakers the furnace or air conditioning unit.
Descriptive representation = microcosmic represenation:
These typically focus on representatives’ characteristics, specifically, on the extent to which
representatives resemble the represented, particularly with respect to demographic characteristics.
“Shared experience” (Mansbridge 1999) can also be critical– experience as a farmer, for instance, or
of having grown up in a particular region.
A symbolic argument for descriptive representation focuses on the representation of historically
under-represented groups (e.g., women, or racial or ethnic minorities), and stresses the significance
of seeing oneself represented in government, and of consequently seeing politics as something that
you are or can be involved in.
Descriptive representation may also facilitate communication between constituents and
representatives, particularly in historically conflictual contexts.
Proponents of descriptive representation have also argued that it can be a useful proxy for policy
attitudes: “When interests are uncrystallized, the best way to have one’s most important substantive
interests represented is often to choose a representative whose descriptive characteristics match
one’s own on the issues one expects to emerge.
Policy representation:
the extent to which demographic similarities are a substitute for policy attitudes is unclear, and using
a proxy of dubious reliability is less than ideal. Note first that preferences and interests are not the
same thing. Many people have a preference for a level of redistributive policy that clearly is not in
their best interest, for instance– they are wealthy themselves but support politics that favor the less
advantaged.6 Similarly, many white (majority) respondents support policies that benefit visible
minorities. In neither case are their preferences in line with what would seem to be their interests .
, Descriptive representation may thus be important in terms of providing role models, connecting to
politics, or engendering a feeling of belonging in the political community. Where policy is concerned,
descriptive representation falls short.
Electoral representation:
Electoral representational theory is interested in the extent to which a legislature mirrors the
electorate, where the most salient characteristic of voters is for whom they voted. It thus focuses on
how the distribution of seats reflects the distribution of votes. This is not to say that representation
as “acting for” is entirely ignored; as with descriptive representation, electoral representational
theory is premised on a connection between the representation of votes and the resulting
representatives’ legislative activity.
Policy representation:
What we ultimately are interested in is policy representation, whereby the policy decisions of elected
representatives are broadly reflective of some aggregation of public preferences, or – to draw on
Rousseau – something like a “general will. The quality of representation should be indicated not by
shared belief, demographic proximity, or the accuracy of a vote-seat function, but by the extent to
which representatives’ actions are related to the preferences of those being represented.
Chapter 2: the thermostatic model
The representation of public opinion presupposes that the public actually notices and responds to
what policymakers do. It means that the public must acquire and process information about policy,
and adjust its preferences accordingly. As we have noted, without such responsiveness, policymakers
would have little incentive to represent what the public wants in policy – without public
responsiveness, expressed public preferences would contain little meaningful
information. There not only would be a limited basis for holding politicians accountable; registered
preferences would be of little use even to those politicians motivated to represent the public for
other reasons.
Wlezien (1995): a responsive public will behave much like a thermostat, adjusting its preferences for
more or less policy in response to what policymakers do.
Rt can shift.
We can choose specific politicians to serve as cue-givers. We can use them to tell us whether things
are about right or whether we need to do more (or less). We presumably choose them because we
trust them, and we rely on them more the more we trust them.
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