Thinking about elections and about democratic representation

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

E-ISSN: 1744-5515|7|1|1-3

ISSN: 1574-0196

Source: European Constitutional Law Review, Vol.7, Iss.1, 2011-02, pp. : 1-3

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Abstract

[Political representation] is the basis of modern representative democracy. Older and less sophisticated forms, such as direct democracy, subsist marginally, even if they keep exerting a certain attraction. But representative democracy does not carry the self-evident authority it once had. Like every modern institution it is under challenge and consequently needs to be defended. In actual politics, the defence often takes the form of discussion of the merits of one system over the other and of proposals for change. The part of this defence appertaining to constitutional scholarship is not concerned primarily with proposals and changes. It is, before all, to brush up the fundamentals underlying representative democracy, on the basis of topical issues.