POS 554 Representative, Democracy and Societal Differences

If democracy in the contemporary era means representative democracy, then both who gets represented and who does the representing are central issues, though contentious ones.Most representative bodies, particularly in the U.S., do not reflect the descriptive characteristics (race, class, gender, sexuality) of the larger citizenry.Do such characteristics matter?Might the absence of members from such groups signal systemic inequalities in the polity?That is, is there a relationship between descriptive representation (who represents) and substantive representation (what gets represented)?If not, then presumably there is no problem with the 'appearance' of the representative body - but how can we explain their absence?If so, what is the nature of the relationship and, relatedly, what measures should we undertake to increase the representation of historically marginalized groups?Furthermore, is there a relationship between how people are represented in the popular culture and how they are recognized or understood politically/socially?If so, what is the nature of that relationship?What does it imply about how those representations are produced, disseminated, and interpreted, who engages in these activities, and for what purposes?These will be the central questions driving the readings and discussion in this course.

Credits

3