Varieties of Public Representation

Abstract

Three metaphors have driven the notion of political representation. Pictorial representation has suggested that representatives ought to resemble and stand in for the represented; juridical representation that they ought to act for the represented; and theatrical representation that they ought to interpret and speak for the represented. The paper distinguishes the corresponding concepts of representation � simulative, agential and interpretive � and shows how they may apply with different kinds of representative and represented entities, individual and collective. It illustrates the use to which these distinctions may be put in a brief discussion of Washington and Westminster systems.