Political Representation

Abstract

Political representation, particularly in a democratic context, is complex in both concept and practice and evokes both actual and imaginary geographies. Two major theoretical debates involve the proper relationship between representatives and their constituents, and the composition of an elected assembly relative to the population it represents. Among other things, such debates seek to reconcile the contradiction of vesting power in a group that is simultaneously the ruler and the ruled. Critics from both the right and the left argue the democratic representation serves to disguise the power wielded by capital and/or elites while providing the illusion of representative governance. The populist revolts against conventional political parties, norms, and institutions across a range of democracies in the last 10 years suggest that such critiques have become particularly salient. Electoral systems provide the means to create political representation, but the two most common systems, proportional representation and territorial plurality systems, provide different balances between accountability, proportionality, and responsiveness. Although only territorial plurality systems create formal geographic constituencies, all electoral systems potentially raise important questions of political representation for geographers.