Bases of Representation

Two hundred people sit in a legislature. On what basis were they chosen from among millions — where they live, what they do for a living, how few or many votes they got, or how much their vote was worth compared to someone else's? Every democracy has to answer this, and the answer it gives shapes everything about how power is actually distributed.

In two minutes

The ‘basis’ of representation is the principle used to group voters into a represented unit — whether by geographic territory, occupation, minority status, or a formula designed to match seats to vote share — and each basis produces a different kind of legislature with different winners and losers.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Political Science – I: Political Theory and Political Organisation on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.