Political Representation

<p>In an ideal democracy, representatives would entirely reflect citizens’ views, preferences and wishes in their legislative work. However, real-life democracies do not meet this ideal and citizens’ policy preferences and priorities are mirrored only inadequately.</p><p>This book provides new insights on political representation. It is guided by three questions: </p><ul> <p> </p> <li>what roles should representatives play? </li> <p> </p> <li>Who is actually or should be represented? </li> <p> </p> <li>How are the representatives (or how should they be) connected with the represented? </li> </ul><p>Containing contributions from the perspectives of political theory and philosophy, as well as quantitative empirical studies, the volume demonstrates the need to adapt these established questions to new political realities.</p><p>This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of political representation and parties, political theory, democratic theory, political philosophy and comparative politics.</p> <p>1 Introduction <i>Marc Bühlmann and Jan Fivaz</i> 2 A ‘Selection Model’ for Political Representation <i>Jane Mansbridge </i>3. Beyond Trustees and Delegates <i>Andrew Rehfeld</i> 4 Institutional Constraints and Territorial Representation <i>Audrey André, Sam Depauw and Kris Deschouwer</i> 5 Promises and Lies. An Empirical Comparison of Swiss MPs’ Pre- and Post-Electoral Positions <i>Lisa Schädel, Daniel Schwarz and Andreas Ladner</i> 6 Beyond Congruence <i>Lisa Disch</i> 7 Dimensionality of the European Issue Space <i>Jan Kleinnijenhuis and André Krouwel</i> 8 Representation of Political Opinions: Is the Structuring Pattern of Policy Preferences the Same For Citizens and Elites? <i>Jan Rosset, Georg Lutz and Kathrin Kissau </i>9 "Alignment of Objectives" Between Parties and Their Electors: The Role of Personal Issue: Salience in Political Representation <i>Nathalie Giger and Zoe Lefkofridi </i>10 Studying the Voter-Party Match. Congruence and Incongruence Between Voters and Parties <i>Jonas Lefevere, Stefaan Walgrave, Michiel Nuytemans and Koen Pepermans</i> 11 Measuring Representation: Rethinking the Role of Exclusion <i>Suzanne Dovi </i>12 Conclusion<i> Marc Bühlmann and Jan Fivaz</i></p>