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Toward a Mobilization Conception of Democratic Representation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2011

LISA DISCH
LISA DISCH*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
*
Lisa Disch is Professor, Departments of Political Science and Women's Studies, University of Michigan, 5700 Haven Hall, 505 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (ldisch@umich.edu).
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Abstract

This article analyzes what I term “the dilemma of democratic competence,” which emerges when researchers find their expectations regarding democratic responsiveness to be in conflict with their findings regarding the context dependency of individual preferences. I attribute this dilemma to scholars' normative expectations, rather than to deficiencies of mass democratic politics. I propose a mobilization conception of political representation and develop a systemic understanding of reflexivity as the measure of its legitimacy. This article thus contributes to the emergent normative argument that political representation is intrinsic to democratic government, and links that claim to empirical research on political preference formation.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 105 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 100 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2011

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