The Politics of Voter Presence
(2022) In International Political Science Review 43(2). p.157-172- Abstract
- By focusing only on the composition of representative bodies, the traditional ‘politics of presence’ approach has inadvertently diminished the value of participation for representation. It overlooks that there exist ‘elite voters’ who reinforce discrimination against abstainers at the policy level and create obstacles for improving the lives of the marginalized. We offer a remedy to persisting patterns of political exclusion by arguing in favour of a ‘politics of presence’ at the polls. This requires high and socially diverse turnout that will make representation more inclusive, broader and qualitatively different; it will be more descriptive, not of group characteristics, but of the interests, opinions and ideas of voters. Our alternative... (More)
- By focusing only on the composition of representative bodies, the traditional ‘politics of presence’ approach has inadvertently diminished the value of participation for representation. It overlooks that there exist ‘elite voters’ who reinforce discrimination against abstainers at the policy level and create obstacles for improving the lives of the marginalized. We offer a remedy to persisting patterns of political exclusion by arguing in favour of a ‘politics of presence’ at the polls. This requires high and socially diverse turnout that will make representation more inclusive, broader and qualitatively different; it will be more descriptive, not of group characteristics, but of the interests, opinions and ideas of voters. Our alternative is a fusion of descriptive and substantive representation: ‘descriptive responsiveness’.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/6448ddac-2816-43b3-b436-234c4ea5ba05
- author
- Malkopoulou, Anthoula LU and Hill, Lisa
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-03-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- descriptive representation, voter turnout, the politics of presence, descriptive responsiveness, voting rules
- in
- International Political Science Review
- volume
- 43
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 16 pages
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85085877275
- ISSN
- 0192-5121
- DOI
- 10.1177/0192512120922902
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 6448ddac-2816-43b3-b436-234c4ea5ba05
- date added to LUP
- 2020-03-23 16:29:27
- date last changed
- 2022-04-03 01:16:20
@article{6448ddac-2816-43b3-b436-234c4ea5ba05, abstract = {{By focusing only on the composition of representative bodies, the traditional ‘politics of presence’ approach has inadvertently diminished the value of participation for representation. It overlooks that there exist ‘elite voters’ who reinforce discrimination against abstainers at the policy level and create obstacles for improving the lives of the marginalized. We offer a remedy to persisting patterns of political exclusion by arguing in favour of a ‘politics of presence’ at the polls. This requires high and socially diverse turnout that will make representation more inclusive, broader and qualitatively different; it will be more descriptive, not of group characteristics, but of the interests, opinions and ideas of voters. Our alternative is a fusion of descriptive and substantive representation: ‘descriptive responsiveness’.<br/>}}, author = {{Malkopoulou, Anthoula and Hill, Lisa}}, issn = {{0192-5121}}, keywords = {{descriptive representation; voter turnout; the politics of presence; descriptive responsiveness; voting rules}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{03}}, number = {{2}}, pages = {{157--172}}, publisher = {{SAGE Publications}}, series = {{International Political Science Review}}, title = {{The Politics of Voter Presence}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0192512120922902}}, doi = {{10.1177/0192512120922902}}, volume = {{43}}, year = {{2022}}, }