Lecture notes
GPSP Lecture 4: Representation and voting
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Lecture 4: Representation and votingElite-mass relationship
The idea is that the representatives are reflecting the interests of the mass.
A key challenge of democratic societies is to ensure a continuous flow of information between
the people and the elites in order to secure representation of citizen preferences. While there
may be occasions where deviations from citizen preferences are desirable, political systems
with a sustained and systematic mismatch between citizen opinion and policy would typically
not be considered democratic. (Anne Rasmussen 2019)
Random selection: used to select citizens to public office and jury service in ancient Athens
Models of representation
Modern democracies are built on the logic of representation: the processes of devising, scrutinizing
and choosing between policy alternatives are carried out for the most part not by voters themselves
but their representatives.
1. Trusteeship: experts who act in the best interest of constituents without necessarily
consulting them
2. Delegation: little or no capacity to exercise his or her own judgement or preferences only
mirror the views of their constituents, making regular consultation necessary before deciding
on behalf of constituents
3. Mandate: representatives adhere to the policy descriptions which got them elected to power
4. Resemblance: representatives need to typify characteristics of the larger group to which they
belong to represent the interest of the group
Exam question about models of representation
Elections
Representative democracy necessitates elections, but a regime that hold elections are not necessarily
democratic most authoritarian regimes hold elections
Prerequisite: rule of law
Democracy requires a constitution that also limits actions and rule of powerful.
A set of historically developed institutional guaranties that prevent the abuse of power.
, Presence of democratic institutions is no guarantee for democracy
- Those in power can use democratic procedures to legitimize abuses of power
- Within democratic institutions too it is possible for actors to behave in an undemocratic
manner
Opposition is crucial: countervailing power
Elitists argue that without counter-force, power always concentrates. That is why democracy needs
opposition: counter-power to balance the concentrations of power at the helm and provide a check
to those in power. An actual democratic system makes this counter-force possible by a legitimate
political opposition.
Functions of constitutions
In democracies, governments are by a constitutional framework:
- Constitutions guarantee political and economic freedoms of citizens
- Constitutions restrict power
- Constitutions limit the duration of the execution of power
- Constitutions regulate orderly method of change of the power
- Constitutions guarantee regular, free, fair and competitive elections of representatives of
the people on the basis of universal and equal suffrage
- Constitutions compel government to be accountable to the people
Types of electoral systems
Exam question book
Most European democracies employ proportional electoral systems: distributing legislative seats
across political parties in proportion to votes received in election.
But often limited forms of proportional representation are used: degree of proportionality is not
necessarily very high and large parties tend to gain some advantage.
Another pattern is that electoral systems are becoming increasingly personalized: more influence of
voters on not just how many seats each party wins, but also which individual candidates fill these
seats.
Basic features
1. The electoral formula: how votes are counted to allocate seats
2. The district magnitude: the number of seats per district
3. The ballot structure: how voters can express their choices for a list or candidate, to both
or ranking them
4. The electoral threshold: the minimum votes needed by a party to secure representation
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