Models of Representation

9 Key excerpts on "Models of Representation"

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  Gender Politics and Democracy in post-socialist Europe

  • Yvonne Galligan, Sara Clavero, Marina Calloni(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Verlag Barbara Budrich

    (Publisher)

  35 Chapter 2 Theorizing Political Representation Introduction Representation is a core concept in the study and practice of politics. In un-packing its meaning, a useful starting point is to consider it as consisting of three distinct, inter-related dimensions. It is about who represents, what is represented, and how it is represented. The context of formal politics – vot-ers, parties, elections, and legislators – provides the usual background for a discussion of one or more elements of representation. More recently, these aspects of representation have been applied when considering the role of non-elected interests in the political arena. This chapter discusses the concept of representation and what it means for a study of women’s engagement with political decision-making in post-socialist European states. Conceptualizing political representation The contribution of Hannah Pitkin (1967) to conceptualizing political repre-sentation is a useful starting point for exploring women’s presence and par-ticipation in democratic legislatures. Pitkin argues that political representa-tion consisted of four distinct aspects – formalistic, descriptive, symbolic and substantive representation. According to her, each of these views highlights different dimensions of the relationship between the representative and the represented. Thus, while formalistic representation focuses on the question of how this relationship is established (electoral laws, for example), descriptive, symbolic, and substantive views focus on what kind of relationship it is. In Pitkin’s view, this relationship can be conceived either as ‘standing for’ (de-scriptive/symbolic representation) or as ‘acting for’ (substantive representa-tion). Each of these conceptions in turn addresses different questions – de-scriptive/symbolic representation addresses the question of who a representa-tive is, substantive representation addresses the question of what she or he does, and how.

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  Why aren't they there?

  The Political Representation of Women, Ethnic Groups and Issue Positions in Legislatures

  • Didier Ruedin(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • ECPR Press

    (Publisher)

  chapter one political representation: a framework The concept of political representation is often used in the literature, but its exact meaning is rarely examined in detail (Birch 1971; Eulau and Wahlke 1978; Blondel et al. 1997; Brennan and Hamlin 1999; Miller et al. 1999). 1 When looking at the concept in detail, it becomes clear that there is no single understanding (Pitkin 1967; Brennan and Hamlin 1999). It is therefore helpful to reflect on the different notions of representation. It is the central concept of this book and this chapter unpacks its complexity, bringing together the varied approaches into a comprehensive understanding of political representation. The chapter begins by looking at the different components of the concept of representation, which helps to define the scope of this book. The role of representatives is investigated, as well as which characteristics should be represented. This discussion builds towards the theoretical framework by selecting the forms of representation most relevant to the empirical analysis. The framework itself is a new synthesis of previous contributions and forms the basis for the chapters that follow. Whilst the framework integrates different facets of representation, it does not attempt to provide a comprehensive theory. It is a tool to inform the hypotheses presented at the end of the chapter. What is representation? Whilst political representation is frequently studied, surprisingly few contributions work towards a better understanding of its meaning. In this book, representation in legislatures refers to a case of political representation. At its most general, representation is defined as ‘[being] present on behalf of someone else who is absent’ (Britannica 2006a). In the context of politics, this describes ‘the idea that people, while not in person present at the seat of government are to be considered present by proxy’ (Ford 1925: 3)

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  Representation

  • Monica Brito Vieira, David Runciman(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Polity

    (Publisher)

  But Bono’s claim to speak for the poor of Africa takes us beyond the nation-state. It rests on two other, relatively novel, features of political representation. First, in some parts of the world the state has failed, or is failing, to represent its citizens. However well the state may be able to represent individuals in theory, in practice some states lack even the basic rudiments of power needed to make their representation claims plausible. The ‘gap’ between the represented and their political representatives is just too wide. In these circumstances, the representation provided by alternative bodies, including NGOs and other kinds of international organizations, may become, and may need to become, more significant. Second, even the successful and stable states of the affluent West are increasingly finding themselves constrained by transnational schemes or networks in which their representative status is being reconfigured. States are subject to new sorts of limitations on their ability to speak for their citizens. Some of these limitations derive from the expansion of the role of international law. Others derive from the wide range of international bodies in which states must themselves be represented and through which they can find themselves spoken for. These new constraints – or opportunities – for political representation in the international sphere, between and beyond states, are the subject of the next chapter.

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  6 Representation Beyond the Nation-State

  For most of the history of modern politics, arguments about political representation have revolved around the state. But from the second half of the twentieth century on, state representation has increasingly had to co-exist with the various other forms of political representation that have been proliferating outside it. These involve both interstate and non-state agencies, and raise questions parallel to those we saw arising within states, concerning rival claims to representation but at a higher level of complexity. This additional complexity arises for two main reasons. First, international groups are by definition more complex than national groups, if only because they contain different nationalities among their members. Second, representative politics at the international level introduces a new dimension to the competition to represent the citizens of nation-states. This is the competition that may arise between states and rival claimants to their role as the ultimate arbiter of their citizens’ interests.

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  Representation, recognition and respect in world politics

  The case of Iran-US relations

  • Constance Duncombe(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Manchester University Press

    (Publisher)

  Introduction: Representation, recognition and respect in world politics

  Representations help us to make sense of our world by giving meaning to events and experiences and the actions of others. These representations are not stagnant, however, and we are not the only ones who use them to understand ourselves and things external to us. Our Others also use representations in the same way. Each of us feels differently about the representations ascribed to us, particularly when they consist of an image of ourselves that we do not like. When we are represented and recognised in a way we disagree with, it is sometimes experienced as disrespect and is framed in an emotional context of insult, humiliation, anger and betrayal. We might then act in a particular way that seeks to undo this form of recognition, or misrecognition, in order to regain a level of respect that we feel we deserve.

  Representation plays a central role in the intersubjective dynamics of identity politics. When we think about who we are, we think about ourselves in a particular way. We think about other people in a similar fashion. We use representations – the production of meaning through language, symbols or signs, a conveyance of something – to imagine who we are and how we want to be recognised. These issues matter not just to individuals but to states as well: representation occurs at both the level of the individual and the state. States use representation to understand not only themselves and others but also to respond to externally constructed images of who they are.

  The main objective of my book is to demonstrate how representation and recognition influence foreign policy. In order to do so, I explore the connection between representations and recognition and how these are informed by feelings of respect or disrespect that instigate the projection or protection of state identity.

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  Culture and Political Psychology

  • Thalia Magioglou(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Information Age Publishing

    (Publisher)

  In other words, I have explained earlier in the chapter that politics is connected to a system of thought constituted by the schema of government/governed, implicating forms of power. However, this schema is expressed in the system of values in which power takes on significant mean- ing. I believe that organized thought (knowledge) always correlates to a net- work of meanings in which values may be the explanatory variable. CONCLUSION This work showed that representation is not simply a reflection of reality but rather a significant organization in itself. In this study, it is the signif- icant organization of politics and its dependence on social and cultural factors (belonging, social realities of youth, systems of values) that I have explored. Additionally, it was demonstrated that politics can be studied, not The Study of Politics From the Perspective of Social Representations Theory  181 only as an institutional entity, but also as an ideological and symbolic entity. Further, between and across the words, judgments, and opinions of the par- ticipants, politics represents to them a social link. The concept of the other is manifested in all aspects of social representation of politics: in theoretical forms, social interest and action, institutional forms, and in negative judg- ment with regard to politicians and political parties. Politics as a social link places value on communication and interpersonal relationships. Politics, then, becomes a realm of human contact that goes beyond specialized envi- ronments in which the policies of the party, ideology, elections, and such all have a decisive role. This study showed that social relationships, values, and cultural belonging determine representations and deserve to be systemati- cally taken into account in studies of politics.

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  The Europeanization of Interest Groups in Malta and Ireland

  A Small State Perspective

  • Mario Thomas Vassallo(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  2 Interest Representation From Behavioral to Institutional Models This chapter seeks to portray the different modes of interest representation in explaining patterns of interaction between governmental and nongovern- mental actors in domestic and European policy matters. It commences with a discussion of how the traditional approaches of corporatism, pluralism, and elitism have been used as theories of political participation, with their emphasis on explaining actors’ behavior across different policy domains. Their respective characteristics are discussed from the dual perspective of small states and the EU. The discussion will then lead to the relaunching of institutionalism in understanding policy dynamics and the ways in which “inherited” or “acquired” institutional frameworks can constrain and/or stimulate interest groups to take action or to refrain from action. The two variants of new institutionalism, RCI and SI, are given a privileged status to decipher Europeanization processes in the light of the original hypotheses that have been stipulated in the introduction. Although the HI perspec- tive will not be probed, nonetheless, some references to it would still be required. The chapter ends with a closer look at the intermediary variables that decode the nature of causality between EU influence and domestic change, and the explanation of the set of dimensions through which the extent of Europeanization of domestic interest groups can be measured. Conceptualizing the Geometry of Governance For years, the debate on elitism, corporatism, and pluralism, together with their variant models, has been widely used by scholars as an attempt to systemize the correlation of state-society relations in policymaking. These models map out state-group relations by inquiring into interest groups and their functioning in the political system, how they seek political influ- ence, and the forms in which they participate in policy formation and

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  The Concept of Representation

  • Hanna F. Pitkin(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • University of California Press

    (Publisher)

  But perhaps it is a mistake to approach political representation too directly from the various individual-representation analo- gies—agent and trustee and deputy. Perhaps that approach, like descriptive or symbolic representation, leads us to expect or de- mand features in the representative relationship which are not there and need not be there. Perhaps when we conventionally speak of political representation, representative government, and the like, we do not mean or require that the representative stand in the kind of one-to-one, person-to-person relationship to his constituency or to each constituent in which a private representa- tive stands to his principal. 22 Perhaps when we call a govern- mental body or system "representative," we are saying something broader and more general about the way in which it operates as an institutionalized arrangement. And perhaps even the repre- senting done by an individual legislator must be seen in such a context, as embodied in a whole political system. Political representation is primarily a public, institutionalized arrangement involving many people and groups, and operating in the complex ways of large-scale social arrangements. What makes it representation is not any single action by any one par- ticipant, but the over-all structure and functioning of the system, 222 POLITICAL REPRESENTATION the patterns emerging from the multiple activities of many peo- ple. It is representation if the people (or a constituency) are present in governmental action, even though they do not literally act for themselves. Insofar as this is a matter of substantive acting for others, it requires independent action in the interest of the governed, in a manner at least potentially responsive to them, yet not normally in conflict with their wishes. And per- haps that can make sense and is possible even in politics, if we understand how and where to look for it.

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  Parliamentary Elections, Representation and the Law

  • Caroline Morris(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  2 Mapping out Representation Theory and the Law The existence of elected representatives is often considered to be one of the defin-ing features of a modern democracy. 1 Despite, or perhaps because of, that seeming permanency, the concept of representation has not remained uncontested. Most texts on representation begin by addressing the issue of whether a system of rep-resentative democracy is a poor substitute for direct democracy 2 or a good thing in its own right. 3 In addition to the long-standing debate over whether representa-tion is a first- or second-best choice, more recently postmodernists have claimed that discussions of representation are undermined by the deconstructionist techniques exposing the indeterminacy of the citizen subject and have asked ‘Is representation even possible?’ 4 However, since representation exists as a well-established political and legal phe-nomenon, we take this as our legitimate starting point. We are concerned not with the over-arching questions of whether representation is good or even achievable, but with an internal question, that is, thinking about how representatives them-selves are shaped and determined by law. What is it to be a political representative? How, if at all, is this meaning reflected in the legal construction of ‘representatives’? As issues of representation lie at the junction of politics and law, this chapter considers the contours and content of the term in each discipline. It examines the various conceptions of representation which have been proffered in language, through the writings of political scientists and philosophers, and in law.

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  Convincing Political Stakeholders

  Successful Lobbying Through Process Competence in the Complex Decision-making System of the European Union

  • Klemens Joos(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-VCH

    (Publisher)

  Focus in this case is being placed on economic models which base individual behaviour on cost/benefit calculations. 161 In political science, this concept is above all used in the rational choice theories, according to which the actors follow their preferences in accordance with benefit-maximising procedures. Action options are analysed under the given prerequisites, opportunity and transaction costs are compared and the best option is selected (with regard to the problem of applying economic models on political processes and decision-making, see Chapter 4). Here, the political system and interest representation are subjected to a process-oriented approach. 162 As in the case of economic models, political approaches can also use products and goods as the basis. This concept makes use of exchange theory. 163 As its basis, it assumes that the interaction of actors, following the – economic – law of supply and demand, is based on the exchange of goods in the sense of e.g. services, knowledge or information. The fact that both actors benefit from the exchange, albeit not necessarily to the same extent, is of significant importance in this. 164 On this basis, interdependence between the actors can actually arise if one actor's goods are vital for the other to achieve its objectives. 165 Following this approach, political interest representation is conceived as an exchange relationship between private (companies, stakeholders and organisations) and political actors, whose most important goods are information on the one hand and involvement in political decision-making or advantageous decisions on the other hand

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