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2 Which “People” Are Represented in a Representative Democracy?
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Published:January 2014
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Abstract
This chapter focuses on “the people” who are supposed to be represented in representative democracy. Two centuries ago, the people were declared the beneficiaries of the democratic revolutions that established the basic outlines of modern representative political systems. It was the people that were to be freed from the arbitrary and self-interested rule of the aristocrats, the privileged, and the elites. Perhaps as a result, one common meaning of “the people” is the “common people”—the people as not the privileged. The norm for democracy now is somehow to benefit “all the people.” And for a specification of who “the people” are, common answers are the whole population of a nation, a territory, or a community, and all those who share a cultural identity. This chapter uses two approaches to determine “the people” relevant to representative democratic institutions: asking who benefits (“core citizenry”) and asking whose cooperation, compliance, and acceptance of a decision's legitimacy are required (“quasi-citizens”). It discusses the differences between core citizens and quasi-citizens as well as the problems they present for democratic reform.
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