10 REPRESENTATION

• representation - It is the relationship through which an individual or group stands for, or acts on behalf of a larger body of people.
• Trusteeship Model (Theory of Representation)

  • A trustee is one who acts on behalf of others by virtue of his/her superior knowledge, better education, or greater experience over them.
  • Criticism: anti-democractic; Questionable link between education and capability of representation
• Delegation (Theory of Rep)

  • A delegate is a person who acts as a conduit (messenger) conveying views of other people; having no/little capacity to exercise his/her own judgement or preferences when making decisions.
  • Criticism: Breeds narrowness and foster conflict
• The Mandate (Theory of Rep)

  • A mandate is an instruction or command that demands compliance.
  • Criticism: Based on questionable voting behavior model that only studied rational factors in voting.
• Resemblance (Theory of Rep)

  • The government should resemble the group they seek to represent – A microcosm (miniature version of a larger body) of society with members from various sections and sectors.
• Functions of elections

  • Conventional bottom-up: Mechanisms of ensuring public accountability
  • Radical top-down: Means of ensuring political control
• Why do we hold elections:

  • Recruiting politicians
  • Making governments
  • Providing representation
  • Influence policies
  • Educating voters
  • Building legitimacy
  • Strengthening elites
• Electoral system:

  A set of rules that governs the conduct of elections. For a regime to be a democracy:

  1. at the minimum, it has to have elections
  2. observe the rule of law.
• Types of Electoral Systems

  1. Non-Proportional Systems / Majoritarian Systems
  2. Proportional Representation/ Proportional Systems
• Non-Proportional Systems / Majoritarian Systems:

  • larger parties typically win a higher proportion of seats than the proportion of votes they gain in the elections.
  • the percentage of votes does not translate into percentage of seats gained
• Proportional Representation/ Proportional Systems:

  • guarantee an equal (or, at least more equal) relationship between the seats won by a party and the votes gained in the election.
  • parties should be represented in direct proportion of the number of seats with respect to votes.
• The Philippines has a hybrid non-proportional and proportional electoral system which is called a Mixed-Member Majoritarian (MMM). MM (since we vote for party-lists) and Majoritarian (since we observe FPTP).
• Party-identification model:

  • partisanship – the voters identify with a party’s ideology, programs and platforms
• Sociological model:

  • group membership; social alignment - class, gender, ethnicity, religion, region, occupation
• Rational-choice model:

  • Deciding on the basis of calculations and self-interests
• Dominant-ideology model:

  • Individual choices are shaped by a process of ideological manipulation and control.How a group and individuals interpret their position depends on how it has been presented to them through education, by the government, and above all, by the media.