Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T14:45:52.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Toward an Integrated Perspective of Minority Representation: Views from Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2012

Karen Bird
Karen Bird*
Affiliation:
McMaster University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

While Hanna Pitkin's multifaceted conceptualization of political representation is well known and often cited, in practice, researchers still tend to examine each of her four main dimensions independently. The connective tissue and complex configurations of representation deserve more attention, for there is a serious risk of misspecification when one looks at a single, or even a pair of dimensions in isolation from the others (Eulau and Karps 1977; Schwindt-Bayer and Mishler 2005). With regard to minority representation, an integrated perspective brings into clearer focus dimensions of the concept that have been somewhat neglected. In particular, I argue that the symbolic and descriptive dimensions of minority representation are especially important in the Canadian context and should not be discounted as less meaningful than the substantive “acting for” dimension of representation. Following Pitkin, I also emphasize that much depends on the formalistic dimension of representation.

Type
Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 529 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Banducci, Susan A., Donovan, Todd, and Karp, Jeffrey A.. 2004. “Minority Representation, Empowerment, and Participation.” Journal of Politics 66 (2): 534–56.Google Scholar
Bird, Karen. 2011. “Representation from a Different Perspective: What Diverse Citizens Think about their Representation in Canadian Politics.” Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference, August 24–27, 2011, Reykjavik, Iceland.Google Scholar
Docherty, David C. 1997. Mr. Smith Goes to Ottawa: Life in the House of Commons. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Eulau, Heinz, and Karps, Paul D.. 1977. “The Puzzle of Representation: Specifying Components of Responsiveness.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 2 (3): 233–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenno, Richard F. 2003. Going Home: Black Representatives and their Constituents. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hero, Rodney, and Tolbert, Caroline. 1995. “Latinos and Substantive Representation in the U.S. House of Representatives: Direct, Indirect, or Nonexistent?” American Journal of Political Science 93 (3): 640–52.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2010. A Year After Obama's Election: Blacks Upbeat about Progress, Prospects. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/blacks-upbeat-about-black-progress-prospects.pdf (Accessed September 25, 2012).Google Scholar
Pitkin, Hanna F. 1967. The Concept of Representation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Schwindt-Bayer, Leslie A., and Mishler, William. 2005. “An Integrated Model of Women's Representation.” Journal of Politics 67 (2): 407–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soroka, Stuart, Penner, Erin, and Blidook, Kelly. 2009. “Constituency Influence in Parliament.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 42 (3): 563–91.Google Scholar
Swain, Carol M. 2006. Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Tate, Katherine. 2004. Black Faces in the Mirror: African Americans and their Representatives in the U.S. Congress. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar