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
- 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
