Political representation
Political representation is the activity of making citizens "present" in public policy-making processes when political actors act in the best interest of citizens according to Hanna Pitkin's Concept of Representation (1967).[1][2]
This definition of political representation is consistent with a wide variety of views on what representing implies and what the duties of representatives are.[3] For example, representing may imply acting on the expressed wishes of citizens, but it may alternatively imply acting according to what the representatives themselves judge is in the best interests of citizens.[3]
And representatives may be viewed as individuals who have been authorized to act on the behalf of others, or may alternatively be viewed as those who will be held to account by those they are representing.[2] Political representation can happen along different units such as social groups and area, and there are different types of representation such as substantive representation and descriptive representation.[2]
Views of political representation[edit]
Under the accountability view, a representative is an individual who will be held to account.[4] Representatives are held accountable if citizens can judge whether the representative is acting in their best interest and sanction the representative accordingly.[3] The descriptive and symbolic views of political representation describe the ways in which political representatives "stand for" the people they represent.[2] Descriptive representatives "stand for" to the extent that they resemble, in their descriptive characteristics (e.g. race, gender, class etc.), the people they represent.[5] On the other hand, symbolic representatives "stand for" the people they represent as long as those people believe in or accept them as their representative.[6] Hanna Fenichel Pitkin argues that these views of political representation give an inadequate account of political representation because they lack an account both of how representatives "act for" the represented and the normative criteria for judging representative's actions. Hence, Pitkin proposes a substantive view of representation. In this view of political representation, representation is defined as substantive "acting for", by representatives, the interests of the people they represent.[6]
In contrast, Jane Mansbridge has identified four views of democratic political representation: promissory, anticipatory, surrogate and gyroscopic. Mansbridge argues that each of these views provides an account of both how democratic political representatives "act for" the people they represent and the normative criteria for assessing the actions of representatives.[7] Promissory representation is a form of representation in which representatives are chosen and assessed based on the promises they make to the people they represent during election campaigns. For Mansbridge, promissory representation, preoccupied with how representatives are chosen (authorized) and held to account through elections, is the traditional view of democratic political representation. Anticipatory, surrogate and gyroscopic representation, on the other hand, are more modern views that have emerged from the work of empirical political scientists. Anticipatory representatives take actions that they believe voters (the represented) will reward in the next election. Surrogate representation occurs when representatives "act for" the interest of people outside their constituencies. Finally, in gyroscopic representation, representatives use their own judgements to determine how and for what they should act for on behalf of the people they represent.[1]
Under Andrew Rehfeld's general theory of representation, a person is considered a representative as long as the particular group they represent judges them as such.[8] In any case of political representation, there are representatives, the represented, a selection agent, a relevant audience and rules by which the relevant judge whether a person is a representative.[8] Representatives are those who are selected by a selection agent from a larger set of qualified individuals who are then judged to representatives by a relevant audience using particular rules of judgement. The rules by which a relevant audience judges whether a person is a representative can be either democratic or non-democratic. In a case where the selection agent, relevant audience and the represented are the same and the rules of judgment are democratic (e.g. elections), the familiar democratic case of political representation arises and where they are not, undemocratic cases arise.
Units of representation[edit]
Representation by population[edit]
This is the preferred (and far more common) method for democratic countries, where elected representatives will be chosen by similarly-sized groups of voters. The shortened term "rep-by-pop" is used in Canada[9][10] whereas "one person, one vote" is more common in the U.S.[11][12]
Representation by area[edit]
This form of representation tends to occur as a political necessity for unifying many independent actors, such as in a federation (e.g. NATO, the UN). It's highly unusual (and controversial) where it exists within countries because of its violation of the 'one person, one vote' principle. Examples of representation by area within countries tend to be historical remnants of when those countries were federations before their unification. For example, the American Constitution was not quite able to eliminate its rep-by-area features due to smaller states already holding disproportionate power in the proceedings from the Articles of Confederation. In Canada, provinces such as Prince Edward Island also have unequal representation in Parliament (in the Commons as well as the Senate) relative to Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta, largely for similar historical reasons.