Political Representation

Catalog description

An examination of significant concepts, ideas, and research questions addressed in recent and classic studies of political representation. PL SC 543 Political Representation (3) This seminar will investigate significant concepts, ideas, and research questions addressed in recent and classic studies of political representation. It will take up questions and issues central both to an understanding of American politics and to an assessment of the nature and quality of democratic governance: how are citizen interests represented and how responsive is government to citizen preferences? The seminar begins with an investigation of different types of political representation, some of which are policy-related and others of which are not rooted in public policy. It next takes up assessments of the relationship between citizen preferences and public policy (policy responsiveness); biases and inequality in representation; and the role of political intermediaries, namely organized interests and political parties, in facilitating the representation of citizen interests. The implications of a more or less representative political system are then examined. Throughout the seminar, attention is paid to how political scientists formulate and execute research on political representation, as well as to how the design of such research affects what is known about representation. Seminar participants will be required to engage in extensive careful reading, contribute to weekly discussion, prepare short written critical responses to the readings, and complete an original research project that takes up questions relevant to our understanding of representation.