Representation and Democratic Theory

Edited by David Laycock
Categories: Political Science
Publisher: UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774810784, 304 pages, May 2004
Paperback : 9780774810791, 304 pages, January 2005
Ebook (EPUB) : 9780774841009, 304 pages, November 2011
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774851787, 304 pages, October 2007

Table of contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction / David Laycock

Part 1: Representation in Response to Minority Rights, Multiculturalism and Institutional Complexity

1. When (if ever) Are Referendums on Minority Rights Fair? / Avigail Eisenberg
2. Language, Representation, and Suprastate Democracy: Questions Facing the European Union / Peter Ives
3. Getting to Yes: People, Practices, and the Paradox of Multicultural Democracy / Catherine Frost
4. Feminist Engagement with Federal Institutions: Opportunities and Constraints for Women's Multilevel Citizenship / Louise Chappell

Part 2: Reconceiving Representation through Citizenship and Community

5. Sharing the River: Aboriginal Representation in Canadian Political Institutions / Melissa S. Williams
6. The Self-Government of Unbounded Communities: Emancipatory Minority Autonomy in China and Western Europe / Susan J. Henders
7. What Do Citizens Need to Share? Citizenship as Reasonableness / Jonathan Quong

Part 3: Pluralist, Deliberative, and Participatory Challenges to Representation

8. The New Constitutionalism and the Polarizing Performance of the Canadian Conversation / Gerald Kernerman
9. Demanding Deliberative Democracy and Representation / Greg Pyrcz
10. What Can Democratic Participation Mean Today? / Mark E. Warren
11. Representing Pluralism: A Comment on Pyrcz, Warren, and Kernerman / Simone Chambers

Conclusion
References
Notes on Contributors
Index

A thought-provoking collection of essays by leading political theorists
that illuminates the complexity of political representation in
contemporary democratic politics.

Description

With public confidence in representative institutions dropping to
distressing levels, it is time for political theorists to reconnect
issues of representation to considerations of justice, rights,
citizenship, pluralism, and community. Representation and
Democratic Theory investigates theoretical and practical aspects
of innovative political representation in the early twenty-first
century. It reveals the complexity of contemporary political
representation and the importance of re-invigorating public life
outside legislatures, political parties, and competitive elections.

A crucial supplement to empirical studies of conventional political
representation this book offers a timely and thought-provoking
contribution to contemporary democratic theory. It will be a necessary
and welcome addition to the libraries of many political and social
scientists.

Reviews

Scholars of many different areas of political science will probaly find something here that addresses their own concerns, while scholars of either Canadian politics or democratic theory are likely to find much of interest in this collection.

- Alexandra Kelso, University of Strathclyde