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Historical Context
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Theories of Representation
In this course, Professor Andrew Blick (KCL) explores the theory and practice of representation in modern democracies. We begin by exploring the origins of representation in politics. Then, in the second lecture, we contrast representative democracy with direct or participative democracy as represented by recent referendums such as the EU referendum of 2016. In the third lecture, we explore two different theories of representation: delegate and Burkean. In the fourth lecture, we then consider the role of parties, elections, and mandates in the UK’s modern representative democracy, emphasising in particular the twin forces of individual judgement and party allegiance in shaping how constituents’ interests are represented in Parliament. In the fifth lecture, we ask who representatives are and what this tells us about the nature and quality of representation in Parliament. To answer this question, we explore two forms of representation: descriptive and substantive. Then, in the sixth and final lecture, we tie together the various elements of representation we have discussed thus far in the specific context of the UK Parliament.
Historical Context
In this first lecture we explore the origins of representation in politics. This discussion takes us from medieval Europe to the French Revolution, and eventually lands us at our modern system of elections. We consider both the theoretical underpinnings of representation, in which elite men often acted as representatives of the wider social body and brought grievances to the given monarch, and the more tangible form of representation that exists in modern representative democracies. This lecture also involves a discussion of how the institution of Parliament developed over time.
Hello.
00:00:05I'm Andrew Blick,
00:00:06reader in politics and contemporary history at King's College London,
00:00:07And this lecture is about theories of parliamentary representation.
00:00:11When we think about the concept of parliamentary representation,
00:00:17it's important to be aware of the historical background to this idea
00:00:23a long while before the contemporary ideas around water.
00:00:30Parliament is around mass democracy, mass,
00:00:34mass participation, human rights, all these kinds of concepts.
00:00:38Before that,
00:00:42we see the early beginnings of what would become
00:00:44parliamentary representation across a number of different societies.
00:00:49And one particularly important place in which it develops is in mediaeval Europe,
00:00:53where we have institutions that are sometimes known as
00:00:59a states or parliament's various different names like this.
00:01:03But what they are is bodies that in some way represent the wider a society
00:01:07in which they sit. So we don't have a concept of
00:01:16democracy as we have it today.
00:01:21But we do have a concept of representation that in
00:01:23some way you have these bodies made up of people
00:01:27that
00:01:31represent that speak for different parts of society. So you may have
00:01:32the aristocrats, the landowners sitting in this body,
00:01:38or it's an apartment or the state.
00:01:41You may have
00:01:43religious leaders, bishops, for instance,
00:01:45sitting in this estate representing the religious aspect of society.
00:01:47You may also have a body which somehow represents the wider population,
00:01:53the House of Commons,
00:01:58as it came to be called in the English Parliament later in the UK Parliament.
00:01:59So you do have these bodies now.
00:02:03It's important to be a where they're not directly elected in the way that later
00:02:05parliaments or parts of later parliaments are on
00:02:10a mass franchise or anything like that.
00:02:13There may be elections of some kind, but they're not mass participation elections.
00:02:15We don't have parties as such as we have them today,
00:02:19but we do have people who are there in some
00:02:22way to speak for and to re represents society.
00:02:25That concept does exist in some way.
00:02:30So this when we talk about parliamentary representation,
00:02:32we're talking about a concept and a set of institutions with in many ways,
00:02:35long historical roots.
00:02:41Now, later on, particularly after say that the French Revolution,
00:02:43which starts in 17 89
00:02:47and the American Revolution, which starts in 17 76 we start to move towards
00:02:50the concept of democratic representation
00:02:56as we have it today, but that's actually a very, very long development,
00:02:58because certainly in those societies at the time of those revolutions,
00:03:02we certainly don't have a concept of all people,
00:03:06of all genders and all races having having equal status in society.
00:03:09But we start to move towards the idea
00:03:13of mass participation in elections to representative bodies.
00:03:15That's the shift that begins.
00:03:19But this general idea about institutions which in some
00:03:20way represent is there from very early on.
00:03:24One of the things they do
00:03:28is they take grievances or they take complaints or they take suggestions
00:03:30to the ruler in that society so they don't necessarily rule as such.
00:03:35But they bring grievances, proposals, representations
00:03:39to normally the monarch in that society.
00:03:45So the monarch here's these ideas and these demands
00:03:48coming from this group of representatives
00:03:52and responds to them.
00:03:54So that's why part of this concept of representation that you are through this body,
00:03:56your interests are represented to the person in charge,
00:04:00which is often often the monarch, and in the case of the UK, we still have a monarch,
00:04:04but the monarch isn't the same kind of political leader as they were,
00:04:08so that's that's the idea more mediaeval terms in mediaeval times.
00:04:11And that's the concept.
00:04:16And also, if a monarch wants to do something important, if there is a time of crisis
00:04:17that monarch might actually summon those represent, it might bring them together
00:04:22to discuss them. What is the way forward? Maybe to try and get some money out of them.
00:04:27But in return for that has to be concessions.
00:04:31Has to agree to laws, has to agree to rights has to agree to principles.
00:04:34If we, for instance, look at the case of the English monarchy,
00:04:38often whenever they needed money to fight a war because they had a debt problem,
00:04:41they would summon the parliament that Parliament would say, Well,
00:04:47we'll give you this money will let you raise these taxes, But in return,
00:04:50we will want you to confirm that we have rights in this area, this area, this area.
00:04:53So this is an ongoing tendency.
00:04:58So it's important to be thinking about that
00:04:59when you're thinking about the concept of parliamentary representation
00:05:01that it has these long historic roots that later on
00:05:04develop into this concept of
00:05:08mass democracy that everybody or a large
00:05:10proportion of society takes part in elections,
00:05:13and they actually elect this body,
00:05:16which represents them in a more literal sense
00:05:18because they've actually taken part in the vote.
00:05:20
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Blick, A. (2022, January 18). Theories of Representation - Historical Context [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/theories-of-representation/historical-context-63549db5-7c50-4d1a-94fa-de7fd7afffa2
MLA style
Blick, A. "Theories of Representation – Historical Context." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 18 Jan 2022, https://massolit.io/courses/theories-of-representation/historical-context-63549db5-7c50-4d1a-94fa-de7fd7afffa2