The Constructivist Turn in Political Representation

Abstract

This is the first edited volume to provide a comprehensive introduction and a critical exploration of the constructivist turn in political representation. Divided into three thematic parts, the 13 newly commissioned essays presented here develop constructivist turn as a central concept advancing the insight that there can be no democratic politics without representation because constituencies, or groups, exist as agents of democratic politics only insofar as they are represented. Complete with an original English translation of ‘Democracy and Representation’ by the French philosopher Claude Lefort, this volume delivers a rich critical intervention in democratic theory.

Democracy in crisis

“…As recent advances in understanding political representation argue convincingly, and something that democracies' current crises also bring out well, even forms of more substantive democracy that may help to resolve the underlying shortcomings of representative democracy would depend upon representation. This is because all forms of politics involve representation of some kind or other (Saward 2010;Hamilton 2014b;Disch et al 2020). It follows, therefore, that leadership matters.…”

“…In opposition to 'minimalist' or 'elite' views of democracy (Schumpeter 1942) as well as 'liberal' or 'realist' views, which focus on institutional safeguards (Dahl 1961(Dahl , 1973(Dahl , 1989Dunn 2006Dunn , 2014Shapiro 2006), a diverse array of contemporary theorists argue that we see this best if we focus not on elections, procedures or safeguards, but on 'democracy by discussion'. This now predominant 'deliberative' view of democracy is that democracy is (or ought to be) about the participation of citizens in public deliberation or discussion to determine the interests of citizens in a way that either assumes or aims at broad consensus and thereby legitimises public action to meet these interests (Habermas 1984(Habermas , 1987(Habermas , 1996a(Habermas , 1996bCohen 1989;Benhabib 1996;Gutmann and Thompson 2004;Sen 2009).…”

“…Political representation is normally conceived in terms either of 'mandate' or 'independence': political representatives do or ought to respond directly to the expressed opinions and interests of the citizens they represent (Dahl 1989); or, by contrast, they do or ought to act independently of these interests and judge for themselves what is in the best interests of the citizenry and state (Hobbes 1996;Burke 1999;Gyekye 1995;Wiredu 1996). These two main views of representation assume that all relevant needs and interests exist antecedent to the process of representation itself, and in the former case also that legitimate representation must track interests.…”

“…There are four main problems with this, although I only elaborate on one here (for more see Saward 2010;Hamilton 2014aHamilton , 2014bDisch et al 2020). Citizens' needs and interests are not pre-existing and fixed, waiting to be tracked through representation.…”