Representation: Trustees, Delegates and Mirrors

Most democracies are representative: citizens elect people to make decisions for them. But what should a representative do? In his 1774 speech to the voters of Bristol, Edmund Burke argued that an MP is a trustee who should use independent judgement for the good of the whole nation, not simply follow constituents' instructions. The delegate model replies that representatives should carry out voters' wishes. A third view, the mandate model, says parties win elections on manifestos and should implement them.

A fourth asks whether legislatures should 'mirror' society in gender, ethnicity and class, a concern behind quotas and reserved seats in some countries. Each model has trade-offs: trustees may ignore voters, delegates may follow passing moods, mandates may oversimplify, and mirror representation raises questions about which identities count. These debates shape how citizens judge whether their government truly represents them.