| Parliament the Mirror of the Nation: Representation, Deliberation, and Democracy in Victorian Britain Contributor(s): Conti, Gregory (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1108428738 ISBN-13: 9781108428736 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $130.15 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: June 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | History & Theory - General - Political Science | American Government - Legislative Branch |
| Dewey: 328.410 |
| LCCN: 2018048307 |
| Series: Ideas in Context |
| Physical Information: 1" H x 8.5" W x 9.3" (1.60 lbs) 432 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Conti, Gregory: - Gregory Conti is Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University, New Jersey. He has written numerous articles about the history of liberalism and democratic theory, with a special focus on questions of representation and freedom of speech. He has served as a research fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. |