Modes of Political Representation: Toward a New Typology

The mandate-independence controversy still features prominently in studies of political representation even though the problems with its theoretical foundation and empirical operationalization have long been recognized. This article proposes an alternative typology of modes of representation. By combining type of control (ex ante or ex post) with direction of the interactions (bottom-up or top-down), our study captures the most important aspects of the relationship between voters and representatives. We demonstrate how the typology can be used in a survey instrument by comparing the attitudes toward representation of Dutch members of Parliament with the attitudes held by voters, and by relating the views of the members to their behavior

Een democratic audit in Nederland

Het (dis)functioneren van de democratie blijft de gemoederen in Nederland bezighouden. In het verleden leverden ambtenaren en (ex-)politici al kritische bijdragen over dit onderwerp. Zo voerde het ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties in 2006 een democratic audit uit, die resulteerde in het rapport De Staat van onze democratie, en publiceerde de Raad voor het openbaar bestuur onlangs de beschouwing Vertrouwen op democratie. Met de presentatie van het tweeluik Democratie doorgelicht en Van afspiegelen naar afrekenen? is het nu de beurt aan de academische gemeenschap. Een vijftigtal bestuurskundigen en politicologen heeft, op basis van een inventarisatie van bestaand empirisch onderzoek, de Nederlandse democratie de maat genomen

COVID-19 in parliamentary debates: opposition sentiment started out relatively positive towards the government but increasingly became more negative

Or Tuttnauer, Tom Louwerse, Rudy Andeweg, and Ulrich Sieberer analyse opposition party sentiment in relation to government actions and policies during the first six months of 2020. Drawing on parliamentary debates in four countries, including the UK, they observe an initial positive opposition sentiment which turned more negative as the first wave abated

Do Groups Exclude Others More Readily Than Individuals in Coalition Formation?

The present research compared interindividual and intergroup coalition processes. We examined whether groups are more likely to form small coalitions than individuals, and whether this tendency would depend on the social value orientation of the coalition party. Consistent with our hypothesis, results revealed that proselfs formed more small coalitions in intergroup settings than in interindividual settings whereas prosocials formed a similar number of small coalitions in both intergroup and interindividual settings. These and complementary findings add credence to the claim that people who are self-oriented are more likely to exclude others to maximize their own payoff and that such processes are especially pronounced in intergroup settings

Beyond representativeness? Trends in political representation

The ascendancy of proportional representation as the electoral system of choice, and pervasive concerns with the demographic representativeness of parliaments, both testify to the importance that is attached to descriptive or microcosmic representation in politics, despite persistent doubts about its desirability. This paper makes three points. First, representation as representativeness presupposes the existence of stable and meaningful social or political collectivities, which can be reflected in the composition of parliament, and this condition is undermined by the general trend towards individualization, which can be observed throughout Western Europe. Second, this trend necessitates a conceptualization of political representation not as a state, but as a dynamic relationship between the citizen and the representative. This relationship can be characterized both by its direction (from below or from above), and by the moment at which popular control is exercised (before or after the representative s period in office). Third, it is argued that both growing uncertainty about citizen preferences and the transformation of political parties into para-statal agencies push towards representation from above; and that both growing unpredictability of the political agenda and European integration push towards ex-post popular control. These developments call for greater attention to mechanisms of accountability in representative democracies.