Representation
Concept · Politics, stage 1: Learn the vocabulary
Representation is the arrangement by which some people act politically in the name of others. Theorists distinguish the trustee model, in which a representative exercises independent judgement on behalf of constituents, from the delegate model, in which the representative carries out their instructions. A third question is descriptive representation: whether a legislature should mirror the composition of the population it speaks for, and what is lost when it does not. Edmund Burke's 1774 speech to the electors of Bristol is the standard statement of the trustee view.
Why it matters
Almost all modern democracy is representative, so what a representative owes to those who elected them is a practical question rather than an academic one.
Part of
Representation in the glossary
Sources
- Political Representation Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Edmund Burke Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyCovers the Bristol speech and the trustee conception of the representative.
- Political representation Wikipedia
