POL 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Presidential System
7 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
In representative democracy, legislators (people) represent the will of the people when making legislation (laws) in the legislature (formally institutionalized body) Representation--the process by which elected legislators reflect interests & preferences of voters. Mandate (platform legislator must follow) vs. independence (have to put trust in legislator about unexpected issue) Crystalized interests (people are sure, know what they want) vs. uncrystalizaed interests (we don"t know interests/preferences, haven"t thought about it before) Descriptive (presents community based on specific characteristics) vs. substantive (elect somebody who delivers on policy preferences, specific issue) vs. symbolic (acts as voice, represents people elsewhere, stands up for community) representatives. Representation sometimes constituent service, meaning helping people with everyday problems. They may serve as a site of compromise among competing interests. Horse trading compromise happens somewhere in every democracy. Compromise is necessary everywhere all the time in a democracy. Sometimes legislatures write or amend draft laws (bills)
