Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

In the rest of this paper I will take the aesthetic understanding of
representation as the one that is best able to inform our understanding
of political representation. Saward’s theory of the representative claim
also draws on this understanding. What he calls the representative
claim is the ‘basic currency of political representation’ (Saward 2006,
299). It is a detailed analysis of what I called before the core that is characteristic
of all forms of representation. The definition is as follows:
A maker of representations (‘M’) puts forward a subject (‘S’) which stands
for an object (‘O’) that is related to a referent (‘R’) and is offered to an audience
(‘A’) (Saward 2010, 36). [5]
Here, Saward captures the aesthetic understanding of representation
in a clear definition. As we saw, the etymology of the concept
designates only two instances literally: something that is absent (the
represented) is made present by something else (the representative).
Saward however states that represented and representative can both
be split up in respectively a referent and an object, and a maker and
a subject. By inserting these divisions Saward makes explicit in what
the aesthetic gap between the representative and represented exists.
On the side of the represented, we should differentiate between the
image that is created of the represented (the object) and the represented
itself (referent). On the side of the representative: the one who stands
for the object, who presents him/herself as the representative (the
subject) is not always the same as the maker of the claim. The maker
of the claim to represent can for example be a spin doctor who creates
an image of how the subject should present the object. This complex
interrelationship of presentations is seen, perceived by the audience,
which than rejects, accepts or ignores the claim. As Saward’s definition
takes into account that the ‘objectively given referent’ is always depicted
in a specific way (O) and the one who represents is an actor taking on
45
GOVERNANCE
THROUGH THE LENS OF
REPRESENTATION
Femmy Thewissen
5
Schematically it would look like this: