Q.9 Examine the issue of representation in democracy.
During the Cold War, arguments about representation were
a significant part of international debates about democracy. Proponents of
minimal democracy dominated these arguments, and their thin notions of
representation became political common sense. I propose a view of
representation that differs from the main views advocated during the Cold War.
Representation has a central positive role in democratic
politics: I gain political representation when my authorized representative
tries to achieve my political aims, subject to dialogue about those aims and to
the use of mutually acceptable procedures for gaining them. Thus the opposite
of representation is not participation.
