July 17, 2013
Political Process in Modern Democracy
Political Representation
Representative democracy
 Elected officials act on behalf of their constituents
 It is necessary because in large countries, it is not feasible to let all the people participate in
politics.
 It may be necessary to have professional politicians due to the limited political skills (and/or
lower levels of sophistication) of ordinary citizens.
 It undermines the tenets of democracy by transferring political power from the people to a
small group of selected officials.
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Descriptive representation: we count the number of elected officials by group to establish
whether a given group has representation on par with its numbers.
Substantive representation: we assess policy outcomes to try to ascertain whether or not they
are in line with minority interests.
Direct democracy
 Suitable for ancient Greek city-state, the self-governing Swiss canton, and New England town
hall meeting in the United States
 Calls for increased citizen influence through referendums, ballot initiatives, and/or recalls of the
elected officials.
 Do elections provide the accepted standard of citizen influence or do we need to have more
direct influence from the public?
Collective correspondence
 The representativeness of elite attitudes is measured by their similarity to the overall attitudes
of the public.
 When the public’s policy preferences are matched by the preferences of elites (e.g., elected
officials), the citizenry as a collective is well represented by elites as a collective.
 Dyadic correspondence: liberal districts presumably select liberal representatives, and
conservative districts select conservative representatives.
Trustee vs. Delegate
 Trustee: Edmund Burke; once elected, legislators should be allowed to follow their own beliefs
about what they thought was best for their constituency and the nation (independent decision)
 Delegate: voters would formally instruct the delegates on district preferences before they went
to parliament, and the legislator was obliged to follow the district’s mandate.
 Figure 11.2 (Constituency Influence in Congress)
 The trustee model of representation: the district selects a legislator who shares its views (path
a), so that in following his or her convictions (path b) the legislator represents the district’s will
 The delegate model of representation: a legislator turns to citizens in his or her district for cues
on their policy preferences (path c) and then follows these cues in making voting choices (path
d).
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In reality… (Martin Gilens, Affluence & Influence)
The party government model
 In non-American contexts, a model based on individual legislators tends to be deemphasized
and the actions on political parties are more likely to be considered.
 Responsible party government
 Elections should provide competition between two or more parties contending for political
power
 Parties must offer distinct policy options so voters have meaningful electoral choices
 Voters should recognize these policy differences among the parties
 At the least, voters should be sufficiently informed to reward or punish the incumbent parties
based on their performance