3 1. Political representation: concepts, theories and practices in historical perspective Federico Russo and Maurizio Cotta INTRODUCTION The concept of representation is, without doubt, at the centre of what can be termed the most important political invention of the last two centuries, that is to say, liberal democracy. As such, it has animated vigorous theoretical and normative debates, has been used as a pow- erful flag in crucial political struggles (such as those for the extension of suffrage, or today for gender equality) and has inspired fundamental institutional arrangements at national, sub-national and also supra-national level. As a synthetic metaphor for delicate and complex political relations between rulers and the ruled it is a fundamentally polysemic and evocative rather than empirically analytic concept. It is not a surprise, therefore, that its meaning(s) have been highly debated throughout its history, which began well before the breakthrough of contemporary democracy. We will therefore start by briefly tracing ‘pre-democracy’ discussions on political rep- resentation, move to the issue of the relationship between representation and contemporary democracy and then devote our attention to how the debate on political representation has been influenced by the seminal work of Hanna Pitkin (1967). Next, we will discuss how her account has been discussed with regard to several dimensions, such as the direction of the relationship between represented and representatives, the proper object of representation, the normative criteria for evaluating representation and the context in which political representation takes place. THE ORIGINS OF MODERN REPRESENTATION IN POLITICAL THOUGHT AND PRACTICES As is well known, the Roman legal tradition developed sophisticated views about representa- tion and the powers and limitations of those standing for other people in judicial proceedings. The persisting cultural legacy of this tradition in Europe has provided, over the centuries, important conceptual elements which could also be applied in the political field. In particular, during the middle ages, when the distinctions between public and civil law were far from as neat as in the modern world, concepts deriving from that tradition were not only abundantly used in judicial proceedings but were easily transposed into other fields. In particular, they offered the bases for significant elaborations to be used for a diverse set of political and ecclesiastical practices where the need arose for people (ambassadors, delegates, etc.) to stand for cities, estates, communities or religious orders in different decisional bodies (councils, chapters, parliaments). Special attention was given to the issue of the plena potestas of rep- resentatives, that is to say to their ability to consent to decisions taken in their presence and Federico Russo and Maurizio Cotta - 9781788977098 Downloaded from Elgar Online at 01/26/2022 10:19:17AM via free access