1. Lucy Cooper and Zeena Gorton 12 March, 2007
Political representation: Theories of representation, policy and symbolic representation
Lucy Cooper and Zeena Gorton
12 March, 2007

2. Political Representation
Instead of directly participating in political decision making, the public would select legislators to represent them in government deliberations. These elites must remain response and accountable to the public, and citizen control over government is routinized through periodic, competitive elections.

3. Dalton’s types of representations
Collective correspondence
Dyadic correspondence
The party government model

4. Collective correspondence
the representativeness of elite attitudes is measured y their similarity to overall public attitudes.
When the distribution of public preferences is matched by the distribution of elite views, the citizenry as a collective is well represented by the elites as a collective.

6. The percentages in Table. 7 indicate that the public is

7. Dyadic Correspondence
Weissberg defined the pairing of constituency opinion and elites as – liberal constituencies presumerably select liberal representatives and visa versa.
Miller & Stokes model of representation: 2 pathways:
Trustee model: the constituency can select a legislator who shares it own views (path a) so that in following his or her own convictions (path b) the legislator represents the constituency's will.
Delegate model: A legislator turns to citizens in his/her constituency for cues on their policy preferences (path c) and then follows these cues in making policy choices (path d).
This model was also extended to a dozen other Western democracies. However these studies typically found little evidence of policy agreement between constituencies and their legislators.

8. Constituency influence in congress.
TRUSTEE MODEL A
Legislator’s attitude B
Constituency’s attitude
Legislator’s roll-call votes C
Legislator’s perception of constituency’s attitude D
DELEGATE MODEL

9. The Party Government model
Elections should provide competition between two or more parties contending fro power.
Parties must offer distinct policy options so voters have meaningful electoral choices.
Voters should recognise the policy differences among parties.
Voters should be sufficiently informed to award or punish the incumbent parties based on performance.

10. Continued…
More relevant to European politics because they have stronger political parties.
Model assumes that members of a party’s parliamentary delegation will act in unison (even if there is previous internal debate)
The model thus directs the voters’ attention to parties as a political representatives, rather than to individual deputies.
If the model holds, we should expect a close match between the policy views of voters and party elites as collectives.

11. Woman’s representation in Politics
Inclusion and empowerment of woman in politics
Because of this under representation in parliament, it may present consequences for public policy agenda as well and the articulation of woman’s interests

12. Woman are under represented in public office, which is well known despite the strong feminist movement
The 1995 UN bejing platform for action, aimed to get a 50/50 ratio in the workforce.
Out of 193 nations world wide, only 9 woman are at the pinnacle of power as elected heads of states or governments. According to estimates by the UN, women represent less that 1/10 of the worlds cabinet ministers, and 1/5 of sub-ministerial positions.

13. % of female MP’s in Europe- July 2006
Member State % of Women MPs (equivalents)
Sweden
Finland
Denmark
Netherlands
Spain
Belgium
Austria
Germany
Luxembourg
Lithuania
Portugal
Latvia
Poland UK
Estonia
Italy
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Cyprus
Ireland
Greece
France
Slovenia
Hungary
Malta

14. Reasons behind under-representation
Electoral Law
more woman voted in under party list proportional representation system, than majority vote
explained by the strategic incentive theory:in PR each party presents the public with their collective list of candidates for their multimember district. Then parties have the electoral incentive to maximise cleavages in the electorate, by including people from all strata's of society. The exclusion of any one group of people could signify discrimination, and could therefore risk an electoral penalty at the ballot box. In contrast- FPTP- selection process is in hands of local constituency party- minimal incentive to make balanced. Local members want a candidate with best chance of winning

15. …cont
type of electoral system also related to patterns of incumbency turnover. Major barrier to woman lies in the strength of the incumbency – familiarity
Proportional Representation boosts positive action

16. Policy initiatives to increase the number of woman
rhetorical strategies-
international conventions, and speeches applauding the principles of equal rights for men and women.
Equal opportunity policies-
Designed to create a level playing field so woman can pursue political careers on the same basis as men. Equal oppertunities can be gender neutral in design.
Positive action policies-.
The use of reserved seats established in electoral law
Statuary gender quotas, controlling the composition of candidate lists for all parties
Voluntary gender quotas used in the regulation and rules governing the candidate selection procedures within particular parties

17. Positive Action Policies
Reserved Seats: By electoral law, some countries have stipulated a certain number of seats must be filled by woman. This mechanism guarantees a minimum number of woman in office.
Legal gender quotas: Quotas represent an instrument that introduces specific formal selection criteria
Legal quotas have worked better in some countries than in others. Generally speaking the introduction of statuary quotas has proved insignificant.

18. What UK govt think
The Government does not believe that it would be right to make positive action compulsory in order to increase the number of women elected.
To facilitate progress towards increasing women’s representation in government, the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 was introduced

19. Voluntary gender quotas
Most commonly introduced within a specific party, particularly those on the left. Rather than being implemented by electoral law. Scandinavia, western Europe, and some in latin America have introduced voluntary gender quotas. Some communist parties in eastern and central Europe have used them in the past.
Among European countries using gender quotas on ave 33.3% of elected representatives were woman. Without gender quotas- 18%.

20. Cultural Modernization
No automatic relationship between voting system and woman’s representation, or legal and voluntary quotas.
societal values affect levels of human development
rigid gender roles affect rights- notably division of work and homeplace. In countries with traditional values, such as woman stay at home- woman are less likely to run for office.

21. Conclusions
Everyone concerned with female representation in politics- there have been various incentives advocated to try and make woman more included.
Rhetoric strategies/equal opportunities and positive action policies
Reform of majoritarian system – proportional representation/combined representation
Statuary gender quotas by law? Reserved seats?