Political representation

INTRODUCTION

One of American history 's greatest figures , Abraham Lincoln delivered The Gettysburg Address in Pennsylvania on November 19 , 1863 . The last line of the poetic speech read : that this nation , under God , shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people , by the people , for the people , shall not perish from the earth ' During the time of turmoil in the United States , it was timely of the American President to articulate the very essence that lay foundation to real democracy . He firmly believed that a government

composed of the people by the people , and for the people shall and must live forever in to achieve the ultimate goal of genuine representative democracy

Presently , political representatives serve as individuals who voice out the needs of a given population or constituency . Ideally representatives should stand in behalf of the people and advance the latter 's cause . Representation has been described as the embodiment of a person of the interests of another . A political representative therefore must serve as the people 's voice in airing out their concerns , wants and interests . However , there lies a caveat whenever representation between representative and represented arises . Oftentimes , there is a need to make a close judgment call in deciding what the represented genuinely needs . It seldom occurs that the and the genuine interests always coincide . In such a situation , Professor Pitkin 's Mandate-Independence of representation comes into play

MANDATE-INDEPENDENCE ISSUE

The classic issue posed by Professor Pitkin as "The Mandate-Independence Controversy " is essentially a confrontation between the view that representatives should represent constituents ' expressed preferences and the contrary view that representatives should represent constituents "genuine " or "enlightened " interests . Formulas attempting to mitigate the potential for conflict between these alternative views rest on a fundamental assumption about human beings and human action that normally a man 's wishes and what is good for him will coincide . Thus if a representative in fact succeeds in doing what is good for his constituents , normally he should not then find himself in conflict with their wishes . But if that assumption is ever to be put to the test , it must be on the basis of some theory of political interests capable in principle of distinguishing between what constituents want and what is good for them -- between their preferences and their interests

If preferences and interests do sometimes diverge , and if we decide that interests rather than preferences are what representatives should represent , then empirical assertions about patterns of interests and enlightenment have significant implications for the appropriate structuring of representative institutions (Bartels , 1996 . Professor Pitkin identifies the relatively modern use of the concept , and notes that the ancient Romans used a similar word to mean the literal bringing into presence something previously absent , or the embodiment of an abstraction in an object . She then distinguishes two dominant contemporary views of representation : the person who does what is best for those in his charge and the person who reflects accurately the wishes...