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Unit 12: Politics of Representation and Participation

him, that he was subject to its instructions, that he was immediately accountable to it, and that he Notes
could be recalled by it at any time. In short, his role “was more analogous to that of a diplomatic
agent than that of a modern representative, who, according to the generally prevailing view, possesses
the full power of legislation, freedom of deliberation and of voting, and is not subject to instruction or
recall.” Different from this is the modern view that holds that the delegate should not be treated as
the ‘representative of a particular department’ but of the entire nation and that no instruction should
be given to him.
Of the merits of the three views in regard to the nature of the legislative mandate mentioned above,
opinions of eminent leaders and statesmen differ, though they alike agree that the doctrine of taking
a representative as a mere mouthpiece of the constituents is a vicious one. Such a view “not only
subordinates the national or general interests to the assumed interests of particular localities, but it
tends to narrow the horizon of the representative and thereby lower the level of character of the
legislature, tends to deter men of large ability from serving in it, and accentuates the control of the
political party over its representatives. The classic statements of Edmund Burke is very important in
this regard who (in his address to the constituents of Bristol in 1780) said: “The parliament is not a
congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interests each must maintain as
an agent and advocate against other agents and advocates. But parliament is a deliberative assembly
of nation, with one interest that of the whole where not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to
guide, but the general good resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member,
indeed, but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of Parliament.”
It is true that the representative ought not to sacrifice his opinion, his mature judgment, and his
enlightened conscience to the whims and fancies of his constituents. The system of the recall of a
legislator is a rank nuisance, for it is always amenable to its gross misuse and its incorporation in the
law of the American states for example, may be described just as an instrument of political control
exercisable by the party leadership rather than by the voters. We may not agree with the French
doctrine of the mandat imperatif (imperative mandate) that reduces the representative to the role of a
conduit pipe or a telephone wire through which the views and commands of the party are
communicated to the legislature. As a matter of fact, a representative, though chosen by the people of
a particular area, becomes the representative of the nation as a whole and not that of any group or
corporation and the like. “This rule may, however, not apply so rigorously where the representative
has pledged himself before the election to act in a certain manner, the question of his duty to obey
instructions is somewhat simplified, for then a departure therefrom would be a breach of honour and
of good faith such as no representative can afford to be guilty of.
12.2 Representation and Election System

Territorial Representation: The system of territorial or geographical representation implies that for
the purpose of holding an election in a particular territory, the whole area should be divided into a
number of electoral districts that may, or may not, coincide with the administrative districts into
which the country is divided. These electoral districts are termed ‘constituencies.’ The constituencies
may be either single-member or multi-member. When the total area is divided into as many electoral
districts as there are representatives to be elected and one representative is chosen from each
constituency, it is called a single-member constituency. Different from this, when the whole area is
divided into a small number of constituencies, and two or more representatives are elected from each
of them, it constitutes the model of a ‘multi-member’ constituency.
Single-member constituencies are relatively small geographical areas, usually approximately equal
in population to each other and sometimes identical with political divisions of the country as in a
country like India, France, Norway and Switzerland. The usual method is that the candidate with the
highest number of votes is declared successful. The result is decided by the majority of votes. This
method has the virtue of being quite simple; it tends to limit the number of parties and occasionally
fosters a two party system as in Britain or a single-dominant party system as hitherto in India. However,
this system is inequitable. We may take note of the fact that in most of the cases, the successful
candidate gets less than absolute majority of votes. In order to do away with this defect, either
alternative vote system or run-off ballot system (also called the second ballot system) is adopted. It

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