Political Representation: Roles, representatives and the represented

by Marc Bühlmann (Editor), Jan Fivaz (Editor)

Overview

In an ideal democracy, representatives would entirely reflect citizens’ views, preferences and wishes in their legislative work. However, real-life democracies do not meet this ideal and citizens’ policy preferences and priorities are mirrored only inadequately.

This book provides new insights on political representation. It is guided by three questions:

• what roles should representatives play?
• Who is actually or should be represented?
• How are the representatives (or how should they be) connected with the represented?

Containing contributions from the perspectives of political theory and philosophy, as well as quantitative empirical studies, the volume demonstrates the need to adapt these established questions to new political realities.

This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of political representation and parties, political theory, democratic theory, political philosophy and comparative politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138956278
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/14/2016
Series:	Routledge Research on Social and Political Elites
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dr Marc Bühlmann is Executive Director of the Swiss Political Yearbook at the University of Bern.

Jan Fivaz is Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Lausanne.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction Marc Bühlmann and Jan Fivaz 2 A ‘Selection Model’ for Political Representation Jane Mansbridge 3. Beyond Trustees and Delegates Andrew Rehfeld 4 Institutional Constraints and Territorial Representation Audrey André, Sam Depauw and Kris Deschouwer 5 Promises and Lies. An Empirical Comparison of Swiss MPs’ Pre- and Post-Electoral Positions Lisa Schädel, Daniel Schwarz and Andreas Ladner 6 Beyond Congruence Lisa Disch 7 Dimensionality of the European Issue Space Jan Kleinnijenhuis and André Krouwel 8 Representation of Political Opinions: Is the Structuring Pattern of Policy Preferences the Same For Citizens and Elites? Jan Rosset, Georg Lutz and Kathrin Kissau 9 "Alignment of Objectives" Between Parties and Their Electors: The Role of Personal Issue: Salience in Political Representation Nathalie Giger and Zoe Lefkofridi 10 Studying the Voter-Party Match. Congruence and Incongruence Between Voters and Parties Jonas Lefevere, Stefaan Walgrave, Michiel Nuytemans and Koen Pepermans 11 Measuring Representation: Rethinking the Role of Exclusion Suzanne Dovi 12 Conclusion Marc Bühlmann and Jan Fivaz