"We, the People": Ideas of Democratic Representation - POL00116M

«Back to module search

Module summary

In ordinary political rhetoric we hear that in democracies “the people” rule. How might we reconcile this understanding of democracy as a form of self-rule with the fact that we are ruled by representatives? Can representative government ever be a form of self-rule? Can representation be reconciled with popular sovereignty, given the latter’s requirement that citizens perceive themselves as exercising democratic agency – i.e., as being able to act and drive decisions? What is the relationship between representation and democracy? And between representation, participation, and collective mobilisation? This module critically engages these questions –  questions about the democratic credentials of representation – from a historical and a normative perspective, while taking representation as a constitutive force operating both within and beyond elections.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2025-26

Module aims

Political representation lies at the core of modern politics. All the modern revolutions – English, American, French – revolve around representative claims. These revolutions inaugurated representative government proper, with representation and democracy being subsequently reconciled and gradually combined in what we have come to know as representative democracies. The debate over whether representation enables, limits or prevents democracy, has been amongst us ever since. Is representative democracy a contradiction in terms? Is it a defective substitute for ‘real’ democracy? Is it a mere modern reinvention of the mixed constitutions of the past, combining popular and elitist elements in an (un)stable whole? Or does representative democracy constitute a new and superior democratic form of its own? And, if so, what makes it distinctive and what makes it superior? This module provides a broad exploration of these questions by drawing on the history of representative government, in both its democratic and non-democratic forms, as well as on the so-called "representative turn" in democratic political theory.

Module learning outcomes

By completing this module, students will

 

• Obtain a good understanding of the history, the role, the aims, the potentialities and limits of political representation in the context of democratic and non-democratic, state-bound and non-state politics

• Examine the complexities surrounding the representation of different groups within the state and groups acting beyond it

• Develop a good knowledge of recent developments in the theorization and in the conceptualization of political representation

• Understand and critically assess the changing role of representation in democratic politics and the challenges these changes pose at both a normative, institutional and practice level

Module content

WEEK 1: DEMOCRACY &/vs. REPRESENTATION

Democracy is "a government of the people, by the people and for the people" said by Abraham Lincoln. For many, this definition of democracy implies that representative government cannot be democratic, since it does not allow the people themselves to directly make decisions about matters of common concern. Is this assessment correct? This is the main question we will be focusing on in our first lecture.

 

WEEK 2: GENEALOGY I: REPRESENTATION and REVOLUTION

The conceptual and theoretical framework for modern representative government started to be built in earnest during the English, American, and French Revolutions. We start with Thomas Hobbes, who first articulated a systematic theory of political representation, and with Rousseau’s influential critique of representative sovereignty.

 

WEEK 3: GENEALOGY II: REPRESENTATION and REVOLUTION

Establishing a proper method of representation, Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1776, is "the whole object of the present controversy." In this lecture we will be looking into the revaluations of democracy and the reassessments of representation’s revolutionary potential within the American and French Revolutions by engaging with the work of prominent revolutionary actors: the Abbé Sieyès, Thomas Paine and Maximilen Robespierre. 

 

WEEK 4: GENEALOGY III: REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY

This week we will be focusing on representative government as electoral democracy. Our inquiry will be driven by the question: How were representative institutions changed by their progressive democratisation through universal consent by voting and the pluralisation of civil society? We will be addressing these questions through the work of Elmer Schattschneider, Hans Kelsen, and Carl Schmitt.

 

WEEK 5. CONCEPTUALISING POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

This week we are going back to basics and will be focusing on the deceptively simple question of what it means for one person to represent another (or others).

 

WEEK 6. REPRESENTATION, ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

Our focus this week is on the political party as -- historically speaking -- the main agent of political representation. What does a party’s role as a representative agent imply? Do parties perform this role better than other possible agents of representation, and, if so, why; or, if not, why not? Should we favour forms of democracy with or without parties and elections? If without elections, with or without representation? These are some of the questions we will be addressing in this lecture.

 

WEEK 7. REPRESENTATION AND POPULISM

Populism has been on the rise for a while now and its rise is often seen as the symptom of gaps in, or even of a crisis of, representation. How does the surge in populism challenge the way we think of, and analyse, political representation? Do populists represent? Does the way in which they perform representation work in different ways compared to more traditional forms of democratic representative politics? How are different definitions of the people and their representation being articulated within populist movements and parties? How does populism challenge existing representative institutions, and what is the role of populist movements in relation to those institutions? 

 

WEEK 8. NOT SEEN, NOT HEARD: THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AND THE REPRESENTATION OF THE YOUNG

Representative politics is ultimately about forming and mobilising collective agents. It is responsible for calling social groups into being, making their members think of themselves as a distinct group, with a separate identity and interests, and calling groups in and out of political action. In what ways should we think of the representation of groups? What groups merit separate representation in democratic politics, and why? These are the questions for this lecture, where we will be paying particular attention to the challenges facing the representation of women and the young.

 

WEEK 9. INFORMAL POLITICAL REPRESENTATIVES: SELF-APPOINTED AND CONSCRIPTED

You may have seen Greta Thunberg addressing the United Nations Climate Action Summit as a spokesperson for Generation Z ,or, as she put it, as speaking for “we who have to live with the consequences” of climate change. You may also have read about Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking and acting for Black Montgomerians from the pulpit or in political meetings with third-parties. Or you may have heard about governments formed in exile. This week we will be discussing informal political representatives (IPRs) like these. Informal political representation refers to agents speaking or acting on behalf of others although they have not been elected or otherwise selected to do so by means of a formal electoral or selection procedure. What is the role of IPRs in the democratic process and what problems might they present to it? What may legitimise a self-appointed representative? What are we to make of IPRs who are seen as representing a group despite not wanting to or not even knowing that they are being taken for representatives?
 

WEEK 10. REPRESENTING NATURE AND FUTURE GENERATIONS

If we are to have an environmental politics, we seem to need to incorporate "nature" and the future (the “unborn”) into democratic democratic politics. How might this be achieved? Can "nature" or “the unborn” be represented?

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Module feedback

Students will receive written timely feedback on their formative assessment. They will also have the opportunity to discuss their feedback during the module tutor’s feedback and guidance hours.

Students will receive written feedback on their summative assessment no later than 25 working days; and the module tutor will hold a specific session to discuss feedback, which students can also opt to attend. They will also have the opportunity to discuss their feedback during the module tutor’s regular feedback and guidance hours.

Indicative reading

TBC