8.2: The Legislature as a Representative Institution

Understanding the Concept of Representation

The concept of representation is multi-dimensional. In the most direct sense, the legislature acts in place of the people to fulfill the constitutional goals of self-government. Much work in the field of political science has sought to study representation both philosophically and empirically. Perhaps the most well-known philosophical work is Hannah Pitkin’s The Concept of Representation (1967). Pitkin considers four kinds of representation: formal, substantive, descriptive, and symbolic. The first three are particularly helpful in studying the state legislature. First, we should understand the rules and practices governing the formal representation of the state by the legislature. Second, the legislature engages in substantive representation, including lawmaking, government oversight, and constituency service. Third, legislators descriptively reflect the demographic qualities of their districts, defined according to any number of categories such as race, ethnicity, and gender.