The ‘Problem’ of Elected Representatives

Abstract

Whereas Chapter 3 was concerned with the representational transmission of power — of the institutions and processes linking citizens to their representatives — this chapter is concerned with the end point of that linkage and with the representatives themselves. Conceived as a one-to-one, person-to-person, principal—agent relationship, representation is relatively unproblematic. It becomes more problematic, however, when both ‘the represented’ and the ‘representatives’ are collectivities. One solution, historically, has been to subsume individual differences amongst the represented within sets of segmented collective interest — of a territorial constituency, or a political party, or a political association — constituted respectively around a community of local interest, or an ideological programme, or a specific functional interest or political cause which can then be represented. Such conceptions have attracted criticism, however, for assuming that such collective interests are relatively static and exist ‘out there’ ready to be represented (Celis et al. 2008: 101); and for conceiving of representation as doing/acting rather than being/standing for (Pitkin 1967: 61). Notions of representative claims (see Chapters 1 and 3) and of descriptive representation (see below) have been developed in response to such criticisms and have attracted increased attention and importance in the contemporary theorisation and practice of representation.