Where is the representative turn going?
Where is the representative turn going?
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DOI：
10.1177/1474885111417783
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发表时间：
2011-10
影响因子：
1.1
通讯作者：
Sofia Näsström
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Sofia Näsström
如果你在街上问任何人民主意味着什么，你很可能会被告知民主意味着自由和公开的选举。再呆久一点，你几乎肯定会听到一个故事，为什么代议制民主是一种精英主义的政府形式，无法解决人民的实际关切。这种说法是否有道理，或者这种说法本身是否表达了一个民主社会，在这个社会中，冲突和批判，用纳迪亚·乌尔比纳蒂的话说，已经成为“民主不断自我再造和改进的方式”？这四本书的重要之处在于，它们试图恢复代表制对民主的价值。他们没有把代议制政府看作是反对人民统治的精英计划，而是把代议制看作是民主运作的必要条件。在这方面，它们构成了民主理论中新的代议制转向的一部分。投票率下降、对政党忠诚度下降、民粹主义抬头、自封代表的出现以及非政府组织在全球政治中的作用日益增强，这些都改变了代议制民主的运作条件。在国内和国际政治中，民主的界限被视为不像以前那么明显。谁为谁说话，凭什么权威说话，这不再是不言自明的。事实上，在面临环境等跨国问题时，选举制度本身被视为对民主的限制，因为它将公民划分为预先设定的地域选区。正如迈克尔·萨沃德所说，问题在于，尽管我们可以选择特定的政治家。. .我们不能
Ask anyone you encounter on the street what democracy means and you are likely to be told that democracy means free and open elections. Stay a little longer and you will almost certainly hear a story as to why representative democracy is an elitist form of government that fails to address the actual concerns of the people. Is there truth in this claim, or is this claim itself the expression of a democratic society in which conflict and critique, in Nadia Urbinati’s terms, has become ‘the way for democracy to constantly recreate itself and improve’? What is significant in the four books under consideration is that they seek to restore the value of representation for democracy. Rather than seeing representative government as an elitist project opposed to popular rule they take representation to be essential to the working of democracy. In this respect, they form part of a new representative turn in democratic theory. Lower voting rates, the decline of party loyalty, the rise of populism, the appearance of self-appointed representatives and the increasing role of non-governmental organizations in global politics have altered the conditions under which representative democracy is supposed to operate. In both domestic and international politics, the boundaries of democracy are seen as less distinct than before. It is no longer self-evident who speaks for whom, and by what authority. Indeed, in the face of transnational problems like the environment the electoral system is itself perceived as a limitation on democracy insofar as it divides citizens into preconceived territorial constituencies. The problem, as Michael Saward puts it, is that while ‘we can choose particular politicians . . .we cannot