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Saward’s concept of the representative claim revisited: An empirical perspective

  • Representation is a process of making, accepting, or rejecting representative claims (Disch, 2015; Saward, 2014). This groundbreaking insight challenged the standard assumption that representative democracy can be reduced to elections and activities of elected representatives (Pitkin, 1967). It broadened the scope of representative democracy to encompass representation activities beyond those authorized by elections, transformed our thinking and provided a new perspective, putting claims and their reception into the center. This paradigm shift erased the distinction between elected and non-elected representatives and disclosed the potential of non-elected actors’ claims to represent (Andeweg, 2003; Kuyper, 2016; Rosanvallon & Goldhammer, 2008; Saward, 2006, 2009; Van Biezen & Saward, 2008). In spite of this lively debate, we identify an important gap in the literature: while this paradigmatic shift inspired many authors, conceptual frameworks that can be applied for systematic empirical analysis of real-life cases are missing. In this article, we fill this gap and propose frameworks for assessing and validating a variety of real-life claims. Our study provides empirical substance to the ongoing theoretical debates, helping to translate the mainly theoretical ‘claim approach’ into empirical research tools. It helps to transform the conventional wisdom about what representation can (not) be and shines a new light on the potential future of (claims on) representation.

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Author:Petra Guasti, Brigitte Geißel
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-518753
DOI:https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v7i3.2103
ISSN:2183-2463
Parent Title (English):Politics and Governance
Publisher:Cogitatio Press
Place of publication:Lisbon
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2019
Date of first Publication:2019/09/24
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2019/12/16
Tag:Saward; democracy; representation; representative claim; typology
Volume:7
Issue:3
Page Number:14
First Page:98
Last Page:111
Note:
© Petra Guasti, Brigitte Geissel. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
HeBIS-PPN:458294535
Institutes:Gesellschaftswissenschaften / Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 32 Politikwissenschaft / 320 Politikwissenschaft
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds:Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0