Operative Doctrines of Representation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3376565
AutoresCharles E Gilbert (Swarthmore College, autor correspondente)
Ano1963
Volume57
Fascículo3
Páginas604-618
Data de publicação1963-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1952566
OpenAlexW2149348859
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas24

The main point of this article is to identify some traditions of American thought that figure in analysis of the distinctively democratic aspects of government. The discussion is centered on doctrines of "representation." While that term has a generally understood meaning, its application in specific contexts depends upon values and expectations closely related to other largely procedural aspects of politics; and together these perspectives figure in appraisals and decisions of policy.The "distinctively democratic aspects of government" have broadly to do, I think, with relations between public officials and the population. These can be conceptualized and described in terms of institutions, influence, identification, or exchange, and are so treated in various positive or empirical approaches. At the points where normative critique and empirical description join, the literature of American political science seems to have converged on several broad concerns that tend to organize and orient discussion-e.g., representation, responsibility, rationality, and lately, the "public interest," of which "representation" surely has the clearest empirical reference. These are overlapping or intersecting concerns. They emphasize different aspects of government and different blends of calculation and control (or intellectual versus institutional elements); but they do not refer to distinct phenomena, and they relate to common normative traditions. Such terms are often, I think, of dubious utility because they tend to obscure the more detailed values at stake in action or discussion and perhaps thereby to discourage more pointed empirical inquiry relevant to those values. However that may be, the interrelatedness of these concerns and the broad relevance of "representation" can be briefly indicated

Action (physics · Democracy · Economics · Empirical research · Epistemology · Government (linguistics · Identification (biology · Law and economics · Meaning (existential · Normative · Political science · Politics · Population · Positive economics · Rationality · Relevance (law · Representation (politics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics