POLSCI 318 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: John Stuart Mill, Edmund Burke, Party System
4 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Congress and the President
9.21.16 Lecture Notes – Who are MoC and what do they do?
Descriptive representation
o Professor Whyman calls it symbolic representation
o Hannah Pitkin (1967) first came up with the definition of representation
▪ Making present again
▪ Making someone’s views present in a process that the person cannot be physically
be there for
▪ Argued that there are two way – symbolic/descriptive, or substantive
o Symbolic: Congress proportionately represents the US demographics
o Substantive: lawmakers are passing legislation that reflects the interests of their
constituents
▪ How do they know the constituents’ views?
▪ How can we trust that the constituents’ views are well-informed?
o Book says that symbolic representation has substantive outcomes
▪ Evidence for this is mixed
▪ Tate found that black representatives end up being far more liberal than black
constituencies
• Misalignment between symbolic representative and the substantive
outcomes
▪ Bills such as congressional medals and national holidays are considered symbolic
(not much policy substance)
o Women were more bipartisan (in the past)
▪ Women in the Republican caucus have become more conservative with their votes
▪ Cannot tell the difference between women and men in the Republican caucus
o Symbolic representative kind of breaks down in regards to race and sex
Two party system should be strengthened to solve the problem of accountability
o Holding individual Senators and House members accountable for national outcomes
o Way to do it: Make the two parties stronger
▪ Parties were going to advertise their platforms cohesively
▪ As a group, the party will carry out those policy proposals
▪ Citizens can hold the government accountable based on party
How do these modes of representation matter at the executive level?
Different types of representation: Trustees and delegates
o Trustee: A Burkean idea
▪ Burke 1774 makes a speech
▪ Citizens are entrusting members that they elect with sufficient time to deliberate on
issues that favor a common good
▪ Even if it means going against the interests of their constituency
▪ Congressmen should not be bound by their constituency’s will
▪ Solve the problem of an uninformed constituency, low-voter information
▪ John Stuart Mill argued that votes should not be allocated equally, should be
allocated to constituency based on education – making sure that uneducated people
don’t have that much influence over policy
o Delegate: only a mouthpiece of the constituency
▪ Bound by the will of the voters
▪ No freedom or autonomy to consider what is in the general good of the constituency
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