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The Idea of Public Law$
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Martin Loughlin

Print publication date: 2004

Print ISBN-13: 9780199274727

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2010

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199274727.001.0001

Representation

Chapter:
(p. 53 ) 4 Representation
Source:
The Idea of Public Law
Author(s):

MARTIN LOUGHLIN

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199274727.003.0004

This chapter begins by discussing that the most fundamental representative form of democracy is the people. It explains that in modern societies, government does not claim to rule the people; by electing politicians to act on their behalf, government is representative of the people. It adds that representative government should therefore be viewed as the method by which the people are able to govern themselves. It investigates how representative government, initially conceived in explicit opposition to democracy, is today seen as democracy's predominant form. By examining the two together, the importance of representation in public law should become clear.

Keywords:   democracy, people, modern society, government, politicians, public law, representation

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