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Beyond representativeness? Trends in political representation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2003

RUDY B. ANDEWEG
RUDY B. ANDEWEG
Affiliation:
Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, Wassenaar, The Netherlands and Department of Political Science, Leiden University, PO Box 9555, NL-2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands. E-mail: andeweg@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
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Abstract

The ascendancy of proportional representation as the electoral system of choice, and pervasive concerns with the demographic representativeness of parliaments, both testify to the importance that is attached to ‘descriptive’ or ‘microcosmic’ representation in politics, despite persistent doubts about its desirability. This paper makes three points. First, representation as representativeness presupposes the existence of stable and meaningful social or political collectivities, which can be reflected in the composition of parliament, and this condition is undermined by the general trend towards individualization, which can be observed throughout Western Europe. Second, this trend necessitates a conceptualization of political representation not as a state, but as a dynamic relationship between the citizen and the representative. This relationship can be characterized both by its direction (from below or from above), and by the moment at which popular control is exercised (before or after the representative's period in office). Third, it is argued that both growing uncertainty about citizen preferences and the transformation of political parties into para-statal agencies push towards representation from above; and that both growing unpredictability of the political agenda and European integration push towards ex-post popular control. These developments call for greater attention to mechanisms of accountability in representative democracies.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , May 2003 , pp. 147 - 161
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2003

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Footnotes

For an earlier version of my line of reasoning in this paper, based on the Dutch situation, see R. B. Andeweg, ‘De Representativiteit van het Vertegenwoordigend Stelsel?’ in M. C. Burkens et al. (1998) Gelet op de Grondwet (Deventer: Kluwer), pp. 28–43. For a version focusing more on European representation see ‘Towards representation ex alto and ex post?, a paper presented to the Conference on Multi-Level Party Systems: Europeanisation and the Reshaping of National Political Representation, Schuman Centre, European University Institute, Florence, 16–18 December 1999.