Page 302 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Unit 12: Politics of Representation and Participation

12.4 Summary Notes

• The term ‘representation’ has its general as well as particular connotations. In general terms, it
means that any corporate group, whether church, business concern, trade union, fraternal order
or state, that is too large or too dispersed in membership to conduct its deliberations in an
assembly of all its members is confronted with the problem of representation, if it purports to
act in any degree in accord with the opinion of its members.
• Representation “is the process through which the attitudes, preferences, viewpoints and desires
of the entire citizenry or a part of them are, with their expressed approval, shaped into
governmental action on their behalf by a smaller number among them, with binding effect
upon those represented.
• Group representation is more ancient than the representation of the whole people in any case.
Finally, the most essential part of this descriptive definition is contained in the phrase: ‘with the
expressed approval’. This approval is expressed presumably in the constitutional provisions
regarding representative institutions — the particular institutions of that constitutional order,
as well as the general principle.
• The traditional conservative position based on the desirability of order, degree, authority and
hierarchy holds that the common welfare is represented by a monarch or a government charged
with formulating a political programme.
• The liberal view sees national welfare and common good as represented by a parliamentary
assembly made up of individuals rather than of corporate bodies, though under middle class
domination, emphasising a property qualification for the franchise and based on approximate
quality of electoral areas.
• Modern conservative democrats and modern socialist democrats see representation in terms of
a government based on disciplined political parties with social classes as basic units, and also
related to functional groups. The voters are thus faced with the situation of choosing either of
the two parties (representing social classes) for the sake of their representation.
• The authority of the representative is not only created by the constituent power, but it is subject
to change by the amending power under the constitution.”
• Democracy means the presence of social equality and absence of economic exploitation.
Representation should, thus, be governed by this important consideration.
• Socialist countries have also adopted a number of direct democratic devices and institutions such
as method of recall, rural and town meetings, system of imperative mandate, role of social activists,
popular initiative of legislation and the like so as to demonstrate that it ‘’should be a distortion of
the institution of socialist representation if all these existing traits were ignored in a study of the
organs of state power, the representative institutions. It is thus maintained that socialist
representation is a form of indirect democracy which is increasingly completed with a series of
direct democratic institutions, and which is absorbing these institutions or part of them.”
• The executive (preferably a strong monarch or a President) and a legislature subject to its
authority serve public interest. While they should be open to popular input, being of superior
knowledge and judgment, they should not be hindered by popular sentiment.
• Rejecting the case of representative government altogether, it holds that only the people
themselves are capable of representing their own views on important issues. In this way, this
theory alone supports the case of pure democracy.
• The issue of ‘representation’ has also been studied through the analysis of ‘responsiveness’ of a
system. For instance, Lowenberg and Kim have laid more emphasis on the ‘responsive’ aspect
of the representation.
• A candidate securing votes equal to or more than that of the quota is declared successful. If
some seats remain vacant, the candidate having least number of votes is eliminated and his
votes are transferred to other candidates according to the order of second preference marked
by him.

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