Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
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are better suited by the name ‘representative government’ than by the<br />
name ‘representative democracy’ [7] .<br />
In the transition from the represented to the representative something<br />
absent is made present. We refer here to the absence in reality of<br />
the abstract idea of the pre-existing unity of the community which is<br />
made present by installing the sovereign as possessing state power<br />
(Ibid., 22). Urbinati herself states that in this framework we can’t<br />
really speak of a representing of the people, but rather about a “system<br />
of organization of the people and the will of the nation” (Ibid., 23).<br />
This organization comes about by transcending the social realities<br />
proper to society.<br />
These first two models of representation generated both in its<br />
own terms isonomia, which can be translated as legal equality (Ibid.,<br />
40). In its most basal form this is guaranteed by the rule of law and<br />
the state of right. Gradually this was translated into universal suffrage,<br />
generating an equal right to vote, i.e. an equal right to voice for<br />
everyone. It must be clear that such legal equality can only be realized<br />
on a territorial basis.<br />
Temporal narrative<br />
However, those two theories of representation (juridical, institutional)<br />
are incomplete. They miss a ‘political’ element which adds to the representational<br />
relationship a broader narrative. Besides the guarantee<br />
of legal equality, the necessary complement of another form of equality<br />
is needed in order to create justice.<br />
What is different in the political conception of representation<br />
is the circularity between state and society. In order for the state to<br />
represent it must constantly be re-inspired by society. This is guaranteed<br />
by a communicative link between state and society, instead of<br />
confining deliberation to the sphere of the assembly. Both the formal<br />
mechanisms of the system (such as elections) as well as multiple forms<br />
of participation as part of a rich political life (e.g. social movements)<br />
49<br />
GOVERNANCE<br />
THROUGH THE LENS OF<br />
REPRESENTATION<br />
Femmy Thewissen<br />
7<br />
“[…] eighteenth-century American and French revolutionaries used two distinct terms<br />
to denote their innovative enterprises: representative government and representative<br />
democracy” (Urbinati 2006, 27).