Search Results

Considers whether a case for ensuring the equal representation of women and men or proportionate representation of ethnic minority groups can be extracted from the twin democratic principles of political equality and popular control. It argues that it is necessary to move beyond these to an alternative justification grounded in existing structures of political exclusion. Four key arguments are explored: the importance of symbolic representation; the need to tackle the exclusions inherent in the party‐political packaging of ideas; the need for more vigorous advocacy on behalf of disadvantaged groups; and the importance of a politics of presence in opening up a wider range of policy options.

Offers brief definitions of political representation and legitimacy: the former is loosely defined as the concept of representative democracy, including both the institutions of responsible government and the process of political representation, i.e. the political process by which the making of government policy is related to the wants, needs, and demands of the public; the latter is defined as the belief that the existing political order is right. Four sections follow, the first of which tries to explain what is meant by political representation and legitimacy in the context of the EU. The next two sections explore the concepts of legitimacy and political representation in greater detail; these sections include outlines of the later chapters on these subjects in Parts I and II of the book, respectively. The section on political representation introduces the three main models of representative democracy: the Responsible Party Model (a coercive model in which political representatives are forced to take the policy preferences of the electorate into account at the penalty of being voted out of office); the intergovernmental model (which involves national systems of political representation); and the federal model (which operates at a European rather than a national level). Despite various caveats, the Responsible Party Model is viewed as a useful benchmark. The final section of the introduction briefly discusses the research design on which the book is based and notes that it is part of the publication programme of the European Representation Study 1994.

Addresses issues of political representation, particularly, proposals to guarantee seats in the central legislature for members of certain ethnic or national minority groups. It discusses some of the practical and theoretical difficulties raised by such proposals, and considers alternative ways of ensuring a voice for minorities in political decision‐making. It also discusses the tension between self‐government rights (demanding that power be delegated from central government to the minority community) and representative rights (demanding guaranteed representation for the community within central government).

This chapter examines the changes in women’s representation in Lithuania. Women are expected to make significant inroads in their quest for political power. Although the number of women in political power declined from the Soviet period, those who are active in politics have been able to carve out more authentic places for themselves, with meaningful power. Women’s representation and recruitment are increasingly included in the political agenda as the democratic system stabilizes and recovers from the chaos of regime change.

In the first section, the analysis defines the general feminist aims and parameters of the sub‐area of Political Representation Policy. It then discusses the range and timing of policies found in the 13 countries and closes with a discussion of the criteria for selecting the four policy cases covered in the chapter. Political Representation policies include symbolic and material policies that enable women to achieve positions in elected and appointed office, semi‐public and public advisory boards, political parties, trade unions, and, more recently, organizations in the private sector. In the second section, the results of the analysis of the policy case literature on the dynamics of feminist policy formation is presented for the following four cases: The 1982 Affirmative Action Resolution of the ONDP in Canada; Institutionalising Pre‐Election Campaigns in Norway; The 1999 Constitutional Parity Amendment in France; and 1993 and 1995 Quota Legislation in Italy. The analysis concludes that the most important factors in determining feminist policy success in this particular sub‐sector of feminist policy may be strategic partnerships between women's policy agencies, women's movement actors in political parties, and women in political offices, the presence of a constitutional culture, and non‐feminist allies

This chapter reviews existing scholarly knowledge about electoral institutions and political representation. The first section provides a brief overview of the main strands of electoral system research. The chapter then explores the more recent body of research that has shown how electoral systems can affect political ‘representativeness’ in ways that go beyond the preoccupation with partisan proportionality. It then moves on from this discussion to explore the extent to which previous work has identified any consequences for electoral systems in terms of styles of representation: that is, the behaviour of representatives. The next section demonstrates that even under previous classifications of electoral systems, knowledge about the relationship between electoral systems and the attitudes and behaviour of political representatives remains scanty.

This chapter is the fifth of six on the question of political representation in the EU. It analyses to what extent institutional differences between the member‐states of the EU are constraining the attitudes of representatives in respect of one major aspect—whom to represent; this is done by exploring the role orientations of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and comparing them with those of members of 11 national parliaments (MNPs). The first section of the chapter presents a brief conceptualization of representational roles by looking at general conclusions from previous research, and defining 5 representational foci in two dimensions: group specificity (party voters; specific (interest) groups) and regional scope (constituency; all people in the nation concerned; all people in Europe). The next section looks at the distributions of these five foci of representation across parliamentary levels (MEPs or MNPs) over the 15 member‐states of the EU; data are from the 1996 European Parliamentarians Study, and indicate striking differences between countries. The last (and largest) section of the chapter looks for explanations for these differences in foci of representation. These include personal factors (social background; political experience), institutional settings (the regional dimension—the relationship between role orientation, competitiveness and electoral systems; the group dimension—the relationship between role orientation and the encompassiveness and inclusiveness of interest group systems; and the European focus of representation in relation to the size and experience of a member‐state).

Introduces the distinction between a politics of ideas and a politics of presence. In the conventional understandings of liberal democracy, difference has been regarded primarily as a matter of ideas, and representation has been considered more or less adequate depending on how well it reflects voters’ opinions, preferences, or beliefs. This has been challenged by an alternative understanding of political representation that stresses proportionate representation according to characteristics such as gender or ethnicity. The chapter addresses three objections. The first is that this alternative model of representation over‐politicizes group difference, thereby disrupting social cohesion or stability. The second is that making representation even partially dependent on personal or group characteristics can undermine the basis for political accountability. The third is that reinforcing the role of group interest in politics can undermine a politics based on general interest of shared concerns.

Civil rights litigation in the USA successfully interpreted the 1965 Voting Rights Act as implying the right of minority voters to elect the candidates of their choice. This gave the impetus to ‘race‐conscious districting’, which created voting districts in which minority citizens (primarily Black and Latino) formed a voting majority. This chapter explores the success of this in raising the proportion of black representatives but also the problems this mechanism has generated. It uses this case study to argue the importance of combining a politics of ideas with a politics of presence.

This chapter addresses three issues. The first is whether the arguments for ensuring equal or proportionate representation by gender and ethnicity in legislative assemblies should also apply to social class. The second is whether focusing on the institutions of representative democracy blocks more ambitious proposals for extending democratic participation, for example, those put forward in arguments for associational or associative democracy. The third is whether the case for an equal representation of women and proportionate representation of ethnic minority groups should also apply to appointed bodies like quangos or the judiciary. The chapter concludes that the case for a politics of presence is strongest when allied to some of these larger ambitions.

This chapter offers a focused critique of classic and contemporary accounts of political representation, notably those of Pitkin, Mansbridge and Rehfeld. The purpose of this critique is to highlight both the advances these and other writers have made and the work that remains to be done (and why it matters). Within that frame, it establishes the need to focus more on what representation does (as opposed to fixing our ideas of what it is); how representative claims pay a constitutive role; why interpretive depth is more important, in the first instance, than normative bite; how we need to downplay typologies and highlight dynamics (‘what is going on’ in representation); why non‐electoral modes of representation need to be taken seriously; and why national state representation should not be the overwhelming focus of studies of representation.

The purpose of this book is to expand knowledge of political representation in the EU and of the legitimacy of its political order. In this concluding chapter, a summary is given of what has been learned on these two subjects and what this says about the EU as a developing democratic political system. The hypothesis that a well‐functioning system of political representation is a precondition for a legitimate democratic political system serves as the leading theme. The chapter, therefore, first tries to evaluate the quality of the system of political representation of the EU, and from there continues with what has been learned about the legitimacy of the Union.

This chapter is the fourth of six on the question of political representation in the EU, and the last of four that put the five requirements of the Responsible Party Model (outlined in Ch. 6) to an empirical test. The question investigated here is to what extent, at the end of the political process, parties and voters of similar political outlook find each other, i.e. that there is an issue congruence between members of the European Parliament and their constituents. A related issue is also included in the analysis—the extent to which the members of national parliaments are representative of their voters, since both channels of representation must be accounted for in any assessment of the quality of political representation in the EU. The first part of the chapter looks at the general question of the extent to which the European Parliament as a whole is representative of the European people as a whole; this analysis gives a mixed picture. The main analysis on political representation and issue congruence is then presented, and again gives a mixed—and somewhat paradoxical—result; the paradox is that the system of political representation at the European level, as measured against the criteria of the Responsible Party Model, is feasible so long as it is not concerned with issues that refer to the EU as such.

This chapter examines female political representation in Ukraine. It is argued that although the number of women that have attained position of legislative power is relatively low, it is on the rise. This is attributed to three factors: increased party organisation, electoral reform, and the partisan distribution of electoral support.

This chapter is the first of six on the question of political representation in the EU, and the first of four that put the five requirements of the Responsible Party Model (outlined in this chapter) to an empirical test. The questions investigated here are whether EU political parties are sufficiently distinct and cohesive to fulfil the partisan prerequisites of an effective system of political representation in the European Parliament. However, before this is done, a more formal description is given of the present structure of the EU party system, and an elaboration is presented of the partisan requirements of the Responsible Party Model of political representation. This model rests on the premises that government policy should be in line with the preferences of (a majority of) the electorate, that voters must have a choice between different policy proposals (position issues) offered by cohesive parties, and that voters have policy preferences and are assumed to vote for the party whose policy proposals they perceive to be closest to these preferences. The main part of the chapter uses data from the European Representation Study 1994 to test both the original Responsible Party Model and an alternative and more realistic variant based on weaker assumptions and inspired by the valence issue logic of Stokes and the issue salience theory of Budge and Farlie; in this alternative variant parties do not compete on specific policies (positions) but rather on the valence or salience of issues—effective representation is then no longer indicated by the congruence of policy preferences between party elites and party voters, but by the congruence of political agendas of representatives and represented.

This analyzes the consequences of the Israeli version of a mixed electoral system, in which a majoritarian method of electing the head of the executive branch was grafted onto an extremely proportional system of electing the legislature. Focuses on the first two elections in which this mixed system was implemented, 1996 and 1999, and in doing so, concentrates on two aspects of the elections: the election results, i.e., the decimation of the two main parties and the rise of sectarian parties (fragmentation of the parliamentary system); and the electoral dynamics, i.e., the convergence toward the center in both the executive and the legislative elections. The most significant ramifications of the implementation of the direct popular election of the prime minister have been a significant shift in the electoral strength of the parties and a dramatic change in the competitive electoral orientation of the Israeli party system. Neither result was expected by those who initiated and propelled the electoral reform, while many of the actual expectations of the reform were not met. Arranged in the following sections: The Israeli Version of a Mixed Electoral System and Resulting Hybrid Political System; and The Consequences of the Mixed Electoral System for (1) Electoral Competition, (2) Political Representation, and (3) Electoral Efficiency.

This chapter links the discussions on electoral systems with the issue of representation in the EU by exploring how the EP is elected. It starts by reviewing the history of discussions concerning a ‘uniform’ electoral procedure for the EP, which date from before the first elections to the chamber in 1979, through to the legislation on uniformity enacted in 2003. It shows that the uniformity provided for in the legislation remains very limited, with considerable diversity persisting in two factors of greatest interest to this study — ballot structure and district magnitude. The extent to which the EP has been effective in terms of being a ‘microcosm’ of the societies it represents and evidence of how this is influenced by the electoral systems used across member states, are examined. The chapter concludes by evaluating the implications of the EP's current electoral arrangements for political representation in the EU.