Task 5 - REPRESENTATION AND ELECTIONS

• Trusteeship • Delegation • The Mandate • Resemblance

–> Trustee: Person who acts on behalf of other using superior knowledge and greater experience Core theme: Serve constituents through mature judgement + enlightened conscience

1.Representation as moral duty (actions in the interest of the less fortunate) 2. Elitist implications 3. ‘Mass does not know their best interest’ 4. Anti-democratic implications

• Knowledge is unequally distributed • No evidence that education = altruism • Elitist • Anti-democratic

–> Delegate: Acts as a conduit conveying views of others (no own judgement)

• Politicians bound to views of represented • Elections • Short terms • Use of referendum • Broader opportunities for pop participation • Checks self-serving inclinations

• Breeds narrowness • Fosters conflicts • Limits scope of leadership and statemanship

–> In winning election, a party gains popular mandate that authorizes it to carry out policies and programmes outlined during campaign

• Politicians serve by remaining loyal to their party and policies • Provides a meaning on election results • Keeps politicians to their word

• based on questionable model of voting behavior (voters not always rational) • manifesto commitments • imposes straitjacket (limits gov to policies taken during election) • applied in case of majoritarian systems

–> embodied in idea of a ‘representative cross-section’, who constitute a micocosm of the larger society

• representation of all society groups • descriptive • only a member of minority group can represent the interests of the group • better decisions for common good • e.g cantones

• Conventional • Radical • Reality

–> Mechanism for pol to be called to account and forced to introduce policies reflecting public opinion - Pol recruitments - Making gov - Influencing policy

–> Means through which govs and pol elites can exercise control over their populations - Building legitimacy - shaping pulic opinion - strengthening elites

–> Two-way street - Gov and people, elites and the masses haev an opportunity to influence each other

Set of rules that governs the conduct of elections. They vary accross the world

• Majoritarian: larger parties win a higher proportion of seats than the proportion of votes they gain in election (more chances for small parties) • Proportional: Guarantee an equal relationship btw the seats won by a party and the votes gained in the election - Multiparty systems and coalition

• Evaluated in terms of gov functions (stable rule): • proper and clear translation of manifesto into programme • effective rule

• Evaluated in terms of representation: Distorts pop preferences Unfairness to large parties Overfairness to large parties and geographically concentrated support Two-party systems manufactured (Do not reflect the distribution of pop preferences)

Evaluated in terms of rep functions: • Coalition govs are usually unstable • Endless process of reconciling opposing views • Internal splits and divisions

Evaluated in terms of gov functions: • Coalition govs are usually unstable • Endless process of reconciling opposing views • Internal splits and divisions