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REPRESENTATION
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REPRESENTATION
, a See also:term used in various senses in different connexions, but particularly in a See also:political meaning, which has See also:developed out of the others
.
The word "represent " comes from See also:Lat. re-praesentare, to " make See also:present again," or " bring back into presence," and its Me word. See also:history in See also:English may be traced fairly well by the
citations given in the New English See also:Dictionary of its earliest uses in literature in senses which are still See also:common
.
Thus we find the verb meaning (138o) simply to " bring into presence," and See also:Barbour uses it (1395) in the sense of bringing clearly before the mind, whence the common sense of " explain," " exhibit," " portray." In 1513 it is used as synonymous with " describe," or " allege to be." In 146o we find it employed for the performance of a See also:play or a See also:part in a play, whence comes the sense of symbolizing, See also:standing in the See also:place of some one, or corresponding to something; and in 1655 for acting as authorized See also:agent or See also:deputy of some one
.
This is a notable point in the development of the word
.
In See also:Cromwell's speech to the See also:parliament, See also:January 22, 1655, he says: " " I have been careful of your safety, and the safety of those you represented." This strictly political use of the verb developed, it will be seen, comparatively See also:late
.
The noun " representation " passed through similar stages
.
In 1425 we find it See also:equivalent to " See also:image," " likeness," " See also:reproduction," " picture," from which is derived a meaning hardly .distinguishable from " pretence." In 1553 it means a " statement " or " See also:account," a sense which leads later (1679) to that of a formal and serious plea or remonstrance
.
In 1589 it occurs for a performance of a play
.
In 1647 it is used in See also:psychology for the See also:action of See also:mental reproduction, a technical sense which applies especially to the " immediate See also:object of See also:imagination " (See also:Sir W
.
See also:
See also:Good instances of this use are: See also:Gataker, Transubst
.
4: " The Rocke was See also:Christ onely symbolically and sacramentally, by representation or re-semblance "; and R
.
See also:Coke, See also:Power and Subj. iii.: " So cannot these members be formed into one See also:body but by the See also:
Lit. i
.
154) , the politician and philanthropist See also:Daniel Gookin (1612-1687), an Irish settler in See also:Virginia, who, moving to See also:Boston and becoming See also:speaker of the See also:Massachusetts legislature, became prominent in standing up for popular rights in the agitation which resulted in the withdrawal of the colonial See also:charter (1686)
.
But it was the See also:vogue of the " dogma " in See also:America, not its phrase, that he seems to have originated; and while the precise See also:form of the phrase does not appear to be attributable to any single author, the principle itself was asserted in See also:England See also:long before the word " representation," in a political sense, was current
.
In English constitutional history the principle was substantially
established in 1297 by the See also:declaration De Tallagio non concedendo,* confirmed by the See also:Petition of Right in 1628
.
The growth of the parliamentary See also:system in England is traced in the See also:article PARLIAMENT, but the account there given may
be supplemented here by a more precise reference to The Idea the evolution of the idea of political " representa- oapo stical
tion " as such, and of its embodiment in the word now employed to See also:express it
.
The See also:simple idea of the substi- See also:tattoo. tution of one person for another, in some connexion, e.g. See also:hostage, See also:pledge, victim, is so old as to be only describable as See also:primitive;
it is found in the See also:proxy system, e.g. in See also:marriage, and in See also:diplomacy, the See also:legate or See also:ambassador being the alter ego of his See also:sovereign; but, so far as See also:general political legislative action, by one See also:man in an assembly on behalf of others, is concerned, no systematic employment of a " deputy " (the word still used both in a general sense and in politics as a synonym for "representative ") is known among the ancients
.
So long as political power rests in a small privileged class, such an idea must be slow to develop; and the primitive notion of a law-making body is that of all the members present in person, as in ancient See also:Greece
.
But, as See also:Stubbs (Const
.
Hist. i
.
586) points out, the See also:early English See also:jury system (see JURY) shows the germ of the true idea of representation in England; it was the established practice of electing or selecting juries to present criminal matters before the king's See also:judges, and assessors to See also:levy taxes on the See also:county, that suggested the introduction of popular representation in the English political system, and thus brought " the commons " into play in addition to the See also:Crown and the nobles
.
Under See also:
B
.
See also:
A
.
See also:Freeman (Ency
.
Brit., 9th ed., viii
.
297), when he says: " The national assemblies changed their See also:character
.
.. by no cause so much as by the growth of the practice of summons
.
.
.
. In the See also:great assembly at See also:Salisbury (I(386), where all the See also:land-owners of England became the men of the king (See also: The ' land-sitting men,' on the other See also:hand, not summoned personally or regularly, but summoned in a See also:mass when their attendance was specially needed, gradually lost the right of personal attendance, till in the end they gained the more See also:practical right of appearing by their representatives." From the same authority the account of the intermediate stages in the See also:adoption of the representative principle may be further quoted: " By the time of Henry II. the force of circumstances, especially the working of the practice of summons, had gradually changed the ancient assembly of the whole nation into a See also:mere gathering of the great men of the realm . . . . It is in the reign of See also:Richard I. that we begin to see the first faint glimmerings of parliamentary representation . . . . The object of his See also:wise ministers, of See also:Archbishop See also:Hubert among the first, was to gain the greatest amount of See also:money for their See also:master with the least amount of oppression towards the nation . Under Hubert's See also:administration, chosen bodies of knights or other lawful men, acting in characters which became more and more distinctly representative, were summoned for every See also:kind of purpose . How far they were nominated, how far freely elected, is not always clear . It seems most likely that in one See also:stage they were nominated by the sheriff in the county See also:court, while at a later stage they were chosen by the county court itself . In other words, the principle of representation was first established. and then the next stage naturally 1 The inevitable use of the word " represent " in its wider sense (" corresponds to "), is worth noting in this passage from Freeman, See also:side by side with the more technical one in representative " (" chosen delegate ").was that the representatives should be freely chosen . Summoned bodies of knights appear in characters which are the forerunners of See also:grand jurors and of justices of the See also:peace . They appear also in a character which makes them distinctly forerunners of the knights of the shire which were soon to come . A chosen body of knights have to assess the imposts on each shire .
From assessing the taxes the next stage was to See also:vote or to refuse them
.
In I213 the sheriffs are called on to summon four discreet men from each shire, to come and speak with the king about the affairs of the realm
.
When we have reached this stage, we have come very near to a parliament, name and thing
.
The reign of See also: But in modern ideas those names imply two distinct houses; and it was not yet settled, it had not yet come into men's minds to consider, whether the national council should consist of one house or a dozen . But it' is decreed in so many words that the acts of those who came would bind those who stayed away . On such a See also:provision, representation, and not only representation but See also:election of the representatives, follows almost as a See also:matter of course . The mass stay away: a few appear, specially commissioned to act in the name of the rest . The Charter mentions only the king's tenants-in-chief ; so far had things been marred or feudalized by the See also:influence of the Conquest . But as the election could only be made in thq ancient county court, every freeholder at least, if not every freeman, won back his ancient right . If he could not come himself to say Yea or See also:Nay, he at least had a See also:voice in choosing those who could do so with greater effect." ,Ibid. pp . 307, 308.) " The constitution of the (national) assembly, as defined in the Great Charter, did not absolutely imply representation ; but it showed that the full establishment of representation could not be long delayed . The See also:work of the See also:period 1217–1340 was to See also:call up, alongside of the gathering of prelates, earls and other great men specially summoned, into which the ancient Witanagemot had shrunk up, another assembly directly representing all other classes of the nation which enjoyed political rights . This assembly, chosen by various See also:local bodies, communitates or universitates, having a quasi corporate being, came gradually to See also:bear the name of the commons . The knights of the shire, the barons, citizens and burgesses of the towns, were severally chosen by the See also:commune or communitas of that part of the people which they represented." 2 " The notion of local representation, by which shires and boroughs See also:chose representatives of their own communities, had to some extent to strive with another doctrine, that of the representation of estates or classes of men . The 13th century was the See also:age when the national assemblies, not only of England but of most other See also:European countries, were putting on their definite shape . And in most of them the system of estates prevailed . These in most countries were three,—See also:clergy, nobles and commons . By these last were commonly meant only the communities of the chartered towns, while the noblesse of See also:foreign countries answered to the lesser barons and knights, who in England were reckoned among the commons . The English system thus went far to take in the whole free See also:population, while the estates of other countries, the commons no less than the clergy and nobles, must be looked on as privileged bodies . In England we had in truth no estates: we had no See also:nobility in the foreign sense . . . . Yet the See also:continental theory of estates so far worked in the development of our parliamentary system that the ' Three Estates of England became a familiar phrase . It was meant to denote the lords, the commons and the clergy in their parliamentary character . For it is See also:plain that it was the intention of Edward I. to organize the clergy as a parliamentary See also:estate, alongside of the lords and commons . This See also:scheme failed, mainly through the unwillingness of the clergy themselves to attend in a See also:secular assembly . This See also:left, so far as there were any estates at all, two estates only,—lords and commons . This led to the common 2 See also:Professor Masterman, lecturing (1908) on the House of Commons, has pointed out how fortunate it was that this beginning of the organization of the communes into a central body did not come earlier than it did . Had there been one assembly representing the local communitates at any earlier time it would have been far too sectional in character and far too little conscious of any common See also:interest . The organization did not begin till England had become a self-conscious body, realizing its common interests and the common destiny that belonged to it as a nation . I1 I See also:mistake of fancying the three estates to be king, lords and commons . The ecclesiastical members of the House of Lords kept their seats there; but the parliamentary representation of the clergy as an estate came to nothing . So far as the clergy kept any parliamentary See also:powers, they exercised them in the two provincial convocations . These anomalous assemblies, fluctuating between the character of an ecclesiastical See also:synod and of a parliamentary estate, kept, from Edward I. to Charles II., the parliamentary power of self-taxation . For a long time lords and commons taxed themselves separately . So did the clergy; so sometimes did other bodies.: . . " During the reign of Henry III. assemblies were constantly held, and their constitution is often vaguely described . But in a great many cases phrases are used which, however vague, imply a popular See also:element . We read of knights, of tenants in chief, of freemen, sometimes even of freemen and villeins, sometimes, more vaguely still, of ` universi,' ` universita.s Angliae,' and the like . In some cases we are ably better to interpret these vague phrases . For instance, in 1224 each shire sends four knights chosen by the ` milites et probi homines.' Whether these knights were or were not to vote along with the magnates, they were at all events to transact business with them . We must always remember that in these times formal voting in the modern sense is not to be looked for." 1 (Ibid. pp . 314, 315.) This See also:summary shows clearly how the idea of " representation " as opposed to " presence in person " was applied to the The English parliament, so as to give the commons a Theory of proper voice in it as well as the lords . It is unnecessary Repre- here to trace further the See also:gradual increase in power of sentatlon. the House of Commons till it became the predominant partner in the English bicameral constitution (see PARLIAMENT) . But from the point of view of historical theory it is important to See also:note that its representative character does not essentially depend upon the particular method (election by vote) by which its members have for so long been chosen . It is a common See also:error to regard the House of Commons as having a national authority higher than that of the House of Lords merely on the ground that it is composed of elected members, and to stigmatize the House of Lords as "unrepresentative" because it is not elected . But in strictness the question of election, as such, has nothing to do with the matter.2 The proper distinction (ignoring for the moment the later inclusion in the House of Lords of a certain representative element—strictly so regarded—in the Scotch and Irish peers) is that the House of Lords, as still constituted in 1910, remained a presentative chamber, while the House of Commons was essentialiy a representative one; in the former the members, summoned personally as individuals, were entitled to speak in the great council of the nation, while in the latter the members were returned as the mouthpieces of whole communitates, to whom, in the person of the sheriffs, the summons had been directed to send persons to speak for them .3 The preponderant authority of the House of Commons is due not to its' members being elected—that is only one way of settling who the mouthpieces of the commons shall be—but to the progress of 1 " Election " in these early times has its simple meaning of " choice." " We must guard ourselves from supposing that the citizens and burgesses. who were summoned to Parliament, were absolutely elected by the inhabitants of the towns as their representatives . Their presence in Parliament is another instance of representation without election . They were often nominated by the sheriff of the county, and even when that great officer, from See also:negligence or favour, permitted the return to be made by those interested in the transaction, the nomination was confined to the small governing body, who returned two of their members, in general very unwilling missionaries, to the great council " (Disraeli, Vindication of the See also:British Constitution, 1835) . 2 In the American federal system the bicameral legislature is divided into a " House of Representatives," composed of members elected by popular vote in each See also:state, and a " See also:Senate," composed of members elected by the legislature in each state . In spite of the nomenclature, both houses are really composed of " representatives." But under a republican system there is no See also:room for a purely presentative assembly, and the term " representative " comes to imply a more See also:direct choice by the " commons." 3 There was at one time, it may be noted, a sort of " representative " element even in the See also:case of the House of Lords, in so far as peers (including peeresses in their own right, abbesses, &c.) could send deputies or proxies . But it must be remembered that the See also:privilege flowed directly from the personal and presentative character of the summons to a peer, who as such could name a deputy . 
It is quite illegitimate to See also:strain from it an See also:analogy with the election of a representative by the commons, who had no personal right to a summons.popular See also:government
.
The two British houses have historically existed as assemblies of the See also:separate estates of the realm—the House of Lords of the two estates of lords spiritual and temporal, and the House of Commons of the commons
.
The third estate has so increased in power as to become predominant in the See also:country; but the authority of its own assembly simply depends on the powers of those it represents
.
If the See also:balance of political power had not been shifted in the country itself, the authority and competence of the peers, speaking for themselves in a See also:primary assembly, would in theory actually appear higher, so far as their See also:order is concerned, than that of members of the House of Commons, who can only " represent " the popular constituencies
.
Moreover, the fact that most members of the House of Commons are elected by a party vote is See also:apt to make them very often even less authoritative spokesmen of their constituencies—the communitates—than if they were selected by some method which would indicate that they had the full confidence of the whole body they " represent." It is notorious that many members of a modern House of Commons, or of any other " representative " assembly, have only been elected by the votes of a minority of their constituency, or (where there have been more than two candidates) a minority even of those who voted; and there always comes a time when it is certain that if a representative has to come again before the electorate for their votes he will be defeated; he, in fact, no longer reflects their views, while he still sits and legislates
.
The real desires of the commons in a certain British constituency may even be more faithfully, even if only accidentally, reflected by a local peer whose only right to speak in parliament is technically presentative
.
In his Vindication of the British Constitution (1835), Disraeli, See also:writing of the Reform See also:Bill of 1832, observed that " in the effort to get rid of representation without election, it will be well if eventually we do not discover that we have only obtained election without representation." A truer word was never spoken
.
A man may be representative, practically consensu omnium, although no vote, resulting from a See also:division of See also:opinion, has been taken for the purpose of selecting him
.
The vote is merely a method of selection when there is a definite division of opinion involving an uncertainty; and even in the modern House of Commons many members are returned " unopposed," no actual voting taking place
.
A well-recognized representative character (as regards the functions involved) attaches, for instance, in British public See also:life to other persons in whose selection the method of popular voting has had no place; such as the king himself, the See also:Cabinet (in relation to the political party in power), or the bishops (as regards the See also: In the See also:absence of a written constitution, theoretical considerations have in England always been second to the force of circumstances . Most people regarded the House of Lords, as still unreformed in 1910, as purely a hereditary body; its members had been summoned to parliament as peers (the important question of their right to a summons need not here be discussed), and most peers enjoyed their titles by hereditary succession . But the See also:constant creation of peers by both political parties had in fact introduced even into the constitution of the House of Lords an essentially representative e1e nent (though not resulting from direct election), apart altogether from the fact that See also:heredity maintained there a number of See also:parsons whose See also:title had descended from men who were originally representative Englishmen, and whose successors, on the whole, were no less so . In the days when See also:kings really governed in England, the most powerful check on the king, in the interest of the nation at large, was the peerage; the earls and barons, in parliament, were the chief See also:bulwark of the people against tyranny . It was they who stood for the nation in extorting Magna Carta from King John; and as time went on, the representation of the commons in parliament was largely due, not to any direct popular pressure, but to the See also:desire of the kings to influence the See also:lower ranks of society independently of the nobles . Up to the reign of Charles I., at all events, the House of Lords was actually the predominant partner in parliament; the House of Commons was recruited from and returned by only a small section of the commons as now understood; and See also:Oliver Cromwell—certainly a " popular " See also:leader in the See also:ordinary sense—made as short work of it as he did of the king himself . Up to 1832, when the first modern Reform Act was passed, the House of Commons was an oligarchical body, and the See also:electors themselves were a small and privileged class . It is only since then—except in the granting of supplies—that first equality, and then predominance, in respect of the House of Lords, has been asserted by the House of Commons, owing to the fact that an extended See also:suffrage has made the estate of the commons more adequately coincident with the nation as a whole . See also:Prior to 1832 it was the king who directly made and unmade ministries; in 1835 for the first time the result of a general election caused a change of See also:ministry; and the modern view of the House of Lords as purely a revising chamber See also:dates only from then . But the very fact that the responsibility for creating new peerages now passed to ministers dependent on popular suffrage may well justify the contention that hence-forth it indirectly included a select number of representative men of the nation, holding their seats in virtue of authoritative nomination and not by heredity . In the sixty years preceding 1906 no fewer than 419 new peerages were created, 238 by the Liberal party, 181 by the Conservative, or a balance of 57 creations on the Liberal side.' It is See also:fair to assume that all these new peers were created as being representative men in the nation for one reason or another . And an See also:analysis of the See also:composition of the House of Lords in 1906 would have led an unprejudiced outside observer to suppose that its competence to speak on national affairs had not been weakened by any dependence on the hereditary title . It included 166 men who had been M.P.'s (i.e. had been elected by popular vote to the House of Commons), 172 who had held government office, 140 who had been mayors of county See also:councils, 207 who had served in the See also:army or See also:navy, 40 who had been judges or lawyers, 7 ex-viceroys, 16 ex-See also:governors of colonies, 50 who had been eminent in See also:art, letters, manufactures or See also:trade, and 21 archbishops or bishops (appointed by ministerial recommendation, but only after they had worke |