Representation, in politics, is the function performed by the elected members of legislative and administrative bodies. Ancient democracies were usually constituted on the principle of government by the whole body of citizens; at Athens, for example, all important questions were decided by the vote of the Ecclesia. In England, as in many other countries, the freemen of townships and small districts elected their own officers and managed their own affairs; the shiremoot of early times was attended by the reeve and four men from each township; it was, in fact, a representative assembly, properly so called. When the smaller kingdoms were united under one head the change was not at first favourable to popular government; it was impossible in those days to bring together representatives from a wide area; and the conduct of national affairs fell into the hands of the king and his councillors and the great men of the realm. But feudal custom required that a superior should consult his vassals, or some of them, before levying any exceptional aid; under the influence of this idea courts or assemblies of a more or less representative character were formed throughout western Europe. In England the high court of Parliament (q.v.) was organised on a feudal basis, like the neighbouring parliament of Scotland; but the principle of representation was applied as early as the 13th century to the shires and boroughs of England generally.
In framing or criticising the constitution of a representative body we encounter practical questions of considerable interest. We have to determine, first, who ought to elect, whether a property qualification should be required, whether owners of property should have more than one vote, whether manhood suffrage, household suffrage, or a more limited franchise will give the best results, and whether women ought to be allowed to vote. We have then to consider how the electors are to be grouped. The scheme of single-member districts adopted in 1884–85 in the United Kingdom results in the representation of all local majorities; local minorities are excluded, and votes may be so distributed that a majority of members is returned by a minority of electors. Mr Thomas Hare (1806–91) was the author of a scheme of proportional representation, in which the whole country is treated as one constituency, each elector has one vote, and any candidate obtaining the necessary quota of votes is elected, while provision is made for transferring votes from a candidate who obtains more than the quota by enabling an elector to vote for several names in the order of his preference. It is contended that this plan, if adopted, would make the House of Commons a perfect mirror of public opinion; but the plan has not yet attracted any great amount of popular support. After the lapse of about a century the 'one man, one vote' shibboleth of Major John Cartwright (1740–1824) has been recently revived. In school board elections the voting for representatives is cumulative; the voter has a right to as many votes as there are members to be elected, and may give all his votes or as many as he chooses to one candidate. Passing from election law, we have to consider what are the duties of elected representatives, and what should be their relation to their constituents. Should they be paid? Should they have a long term of office, that they may learn their business, or a short term, that they may never forget their dependence on the electors? Are they delegates, bound to act on the instructions of those who appoint them, or is it their duty to act on their own judgment, and to do what is best for the general welfare? The accepted theory in England is that a member is not a delegate; his constituents have no power to withdraw their mandate, and the member is bound to act on his own judgment. But the highly organised parties of modern times leave very little freedom to the individual representative; he can only secure election by pledging himself to vote with his party on certain issues.
For a full discussion of these and other questions, see J. S. Mill, Representative Government (1861; new ed. 1884); T. Hare, The Election of Parliamentary Representatives (1859; new ed. 1865); Walpole, The Electorate and the Legislature (1881). Many interesting political experiments are described in Bryce's American Commonwealth (1888). For the representative system of the United States, see CONGRESS, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES. Representation was not the original system even in republics (see REPUBLIC), but direct voting of all citizens; this old system is still practised in some of the smaller cantons of Switzerland (q.v.).