Bibliograph

Parliament the mirror of the nation, representation, deliberation, and democracy in Victorian Britain, Gregory Conti

Type

Label

Parliament the mirror of the nation, representation, deliberation, and democracy in Victorian Britain, Gregory Conti

Language

eng

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Parliament the mirror of the nation

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Oclc number

1098279671

Responsibility statement

Gregory Conti

Series statement

Ideas in contextCambridge Social Sciences eBooks

Sub title

representation, deliberation, and democracy in Victorian Britain

Summary

The notion of 'representative democracy' seems unquestionably familiar today, but how did the Victorian era - the epoch when the modern democratic state was made - understand democracy, parliamentary representation, and diversity? In the famous nineteenth-century debates about representation and parliamentary reform, two interlocked ideals were of the greatest importance: descriptive representation, that the House of Commons 'mirror' the diversity that marked society, and deliberation within the legislative assembly. These ideals presented a major obstacle to the acceptance of a democratic suffrage, which it was widely feared would produce an unrepresentative and un-deliberative House of Commons. Here, Gregory Conti examines how the Victorians conceived the representative and deliberative functions of the House of Commons and what it meant for parliament to be the 'mirror of the nation'. Combining historical analysis and political theory, he analyses the fascinating nineteenth-century debates among contending schools of thought over the norms and institutions of deliberative representative government, and explores the consequences of recovering this debate. --, Provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

Diversity without democracy, the theory of the variety of suffrages, part one : institutions and sociologies -- Diversity without democracy, the theory of the variety of suffrages, part two : values and criticisms -- Democracy, diversity, and contestability : democracy against the variety of suffrages -- Diversity with democracy? Proportional representation, part one : concepts and techniques -- Diversity with democracy? Proportional representation, part two : the debate on PR's moral and political effects

Creator