I agree with Edmund Burke, that a representative should follow his or her best judgment, instead of following the constituencys majority. This is because, just like every other profession, politics does have experts, and representatives can be counted as such in this context. The reason why a representative is given that post in the first place is that he or she is expected to know best how to run the constituency. Once a representative has occupied the seat of authority, the rest of the constituency should trust his or her judgment in all political issues. In order for such a system to work though, the constituency needs to have voted in a person of high integrity. A representative who follows the majority of the constituency is likely to be very ineffective. This is because doing so makes the representative only a figurehead, rather than a focus of real power and influence. The most popular opinions upheld by the constituency arent necessarily the most correct ones, or the most progressive ones for that matter.
Popular opinion develops through a system that inherently makes it flawed. This is because public opinion is rarely an analyzed perspective on issues. More often than not, public opinion is founded on rumors and other untrustworthy sources of information. The representative should maintain a high degree of transparency to the constituency. This will justify the constituencys implicit trust in him or her. The constituencies have the right to advice the representative, or otherwise voice their opinions.
The Dissertation on “Representative Democracy Is a Muddled Compromise.” Explain and Assess This View
... how the system works – that they vote a representative into parliament for their constituency, who then looks after their interests. The length ... ‘back fire’ and sway public opinion back to the original policy. The compromise in a representative democracy allows the public to ... is unbounded by law or other factors such as public opinion. Dictatorships can provide some degree of stability to government ...
But the representative is under no obligation to follow any of those separate opinions. Instead, the representative should distill through all the opinions offered, judge through them, and come up with a comprehensive course of action that is neither a compromise nor a dictatorship. What the representative finally launches on should be seen for its visionary power..
