Varieties of Public Representation
in Ian Shapiro, Susan Stokes, E.J.Wood and Alexander Kirshner, Eds, Political Representation, Cambridge University Press, 2010, 61-89.
16 Pages Posted: 9 Dec 2015
Date Written: 2010
Abstract
Three metaphors have driven the notion of political representation. Pictorial representation has suggested that representatives ought to resemble and stand in for the represented; juridical representation that they ought to act for the represented; and theatrical representation that they ought to interpret and speak for the represented. The paper distinguishes the corresponding concepts of representation — simulative, agential and interpretive — and shows how they may apply with different kinds of representative and represented entities, individual and collective. It illustrates the use to which these distinctions may be put in a brief discussion of Washington and Westminster systems.
Keywords: representation, Westminster, Washington
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation