CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 565Political Theory and DemocracyGame Theory and Voting SystemsElectoral Systems and Political Participation

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 88 of the 88 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

A “Selection Model” of Political Representation*

Mansbridge, Jane·2009·Journal of Political Philosophy
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-9760.2009.00337.x
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Citizen demands for more accountability and transparency are implicitly grounded in a model of political representation based primarily on sanctions, in which the interests of the representative (in economic terms, the agent) are presumed to conflict with those of the constituent (in economic terms, the principal). A selection model of political representation, as with a selection model of principal-agent relations more generally, is possible when the principal and agent have similar objectives and the agent is already internally motivated to pursue those objectives. If a potential representative’s intrinsic goals (overall direction and specific policies) are those the constituent desires and if the representative also has a verifiable reputation of being both competent and honest, a constituent can select that representative for office and subsequently spend relatively little effort on monitoring and sanctioning. The higher the probability that the objectives of principal and agent may be aligned, the more efficient it is for the principal to invest resources ex ante, in selecting the required type, rather than ex post, in monitoring and sanctioning. A selection model is efficient when agents face unpredictable future decisions, are hard to monitor, and must act flexibly. Accountability through monitoring and sanctioning is appropriate to the sanctions model, narrative accountability and deliberative accountability to the selection model. Normatively, the selection model tends to focus the attention of both citizens and representatives on the common interest. In political science the selection model was advanced in the early 1960s as one of the two paths to constituency control, but after the 1970s was eclipsed by the sanctions model in spite of data seeming to indicate that in many circumstances it has greater predictive power. Economists have only recently begun to apply the selection model significantly to politics.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/j.1467-9760.2009.00337.x

Cites

88 of 88 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 36

  1. Aberbach Joel., 1990, Keeping a Watchful Eye: The Politics of Congressional Oversight
  2. Alford John R., 1989, Congress Reconsidered
  3. Anechiaro Frank, 1996, The Pursuit of Absolute Integrity: How Corruption Control Makes Government Ineffective
  4. Baron James N., 1999, Strategic Human Resources
  5. Bishop Bill., 2008, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of America is Tearing Us Apart
  6. Bohnet Iris, 2002, Successful Management by Motivation
  7. Buchanan James., 1989, Essays on the Political Economy
  8. Burke Edmund., 1774, The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke
  9. Elster Jon., 1995, Barriers to Conflict Resolution
  10. Erikson Robert, 1993, Congress Reconsidered
  11. Fenno Richard F., 1978, Home Style: Members in their Districts
  12. Fenno Richard F., 2007, Congressional Travels: Places, Connections, and Authenticity
  13. Ferejohn John, 2009, Political Representation
  14. Fiorina Morris., 1974, Representatives, Roll Calls, and Constituencies
  15. Roger Fisher, 1981, Getting to Yes: Negotiating to Agreement without Giving In
  16. Follett Mary Parker., 1925, Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett
  17. Friedrich Carl J., 1940, Public Policy: A Yearbook of the Graduate School of Public Administration
  18. Fung Archon, 2003, Deepening Democracy
  19. Guinier Lani., 1994, The Tyranny of the Majority: Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy
  20. Hamilton Alexander., 1788, The Federalist Papers
  21. Keohane Robert O., 2001, Efficiency, Equity, and Legitimacy: The Multilateral Trading System at the Millennium
  22. Kingdon John W., 1981, Congressmen's Voting Decisions
  23. Mansbridge Jane., 1990, Beyond Self‐Interest
  24. Naurin Daniel., 2004, Political Theory and the European Constitution
  25. Oppenheimer Bruce I., 2005, Congress Reconsidered
  26. Pettit Philip.2008.Representation responsive and indicative. Paper presented at the Workshop on Representation Beyond Elections Princeton University December 5–6.
  27. Pettit Philip., 2009, Political Representation
  28. Philp Mark., 2004, Accountability and Democracy: A Millean View
  29. Pratt John W., 1985, Principals and Agents: The Structure of Business
  30. Rousseau Jean‐Jacques., 1762, The Second Contract and Other Later Political Writings, trans. Victor Gourevitch
  31. Schmitter Philippe C., 1995, Associations and Democracy
  32. Schumpeter Joseph., 1942, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
  33. 10.1017/S0003055406062319 · DOI
  34. Sunstein Cass R., 2003, Why Societies Need Dissent
  35. Tocqueville Alexis de., 1835, Democracy in America
  36. 10.4159/9780674045064 · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 565

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Mansbridge, J.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Mansbridge, Jane
ORCID
Mansbridge, Jane
Venue
Journal of Political Philosophy
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2009-10-07
Volume
17
Issue
4
Pages
369-398
ISSN
  • 0963-8016 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-9760
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-9760.2009.00337.x
OpenAlex
W2159710636
Cited by
563
References
87
Citations by year
2026: 28 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 63 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 61 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 68 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 12
FWCI
65.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • Journal of Political Philosophy (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Theory and Democracy
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Game Theory and Voting Systems
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
Keywords
political representation, selection model, principal-agent relationship, accountability, reputation, representative selection

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review