Reflection on Representation

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Assignment 1 Pols 300: Reflecting on Representation

Representation can be seen in many different ways. For me, it’s the idea that political actors are representing what the people desire while taking in consideration of minority groups. Saying that, I believe they need to follow through with what they were elected to do. The Stanford Encyclopedia gives the example definition as, “to make present again”[1]. The job of a representative is to represent the opinions and concerns of their constituents, or people that vote for them. Representatives are the elite and their pay is very generous, this is one reason their motives may be questioned. Reading this article it made me realize the different ways we can see representation. To me whether or not the people have trust in their representatives is one example. Many voters will not continue to support a representative unless they feel that their concerns are being represented. The voters trust their representative until they make a move that provides them the excuse not to. A representative may make a move that isn’t in the best of the people but in the best interest of themselves. This can be considered as substantive representation. It’s described as the activity of the representative and whether their actions are in the interests of those being represented. Andrew Rehfield argues that there should be a separation between what we see as a Delegate and a Trustee. I couldn’t agree more. With the separation it would allow political scientists to see the ways which representatives are partial delegates and partial trustees. Depending on their actions they would be placed in a narrower category. A delegate is to reflect the interest of the voters and groups in society. They are held accountable with how their actions benefit those people that put them in office. A trustee on the other hand is held accountable with how their actions influence the over-all well being of the country. One main job for representatives is to be in charge of promoting democratic consistency. As stated in the Stanford Encyclopedia reading by Young, the democratic representation is a dynamic process meaning that it moves between movements of accountability and authorization[2]. The citizens are then allowed to authorize their representatives and hold them accountable. This made me thinking a different way. By doing so we evaluate how a representative would be able to do the task we demand and if they are a good representation of our voice. A representative must build the trust from the community even from the disadvantaged groups. This can be achieved by building relationships with the community.

Another point that was brought us as reading was the idea that descriptive representation can end up suppressing other voices because stronger voices are being added. This becomes a problem for many representatives who have to represent many different views. The representative has to realize the diversity within the constituents and how representing one group may come at the expense of another. Descriptive representation is whether a legislatures membership reflects the diversity of backgrounds and interests in society[3] This made me really question all the groups, mainly minorities that are not getting their voices heard because their representatives are siding with the citizens that are going to benefit them more. A good member of congress should be able to gather with other representatives of diverse representation and discuss public policy.

[1] Dovi, Suzanne. “Political Representation.” Stanford University

[2] Dovi, Suzanne. “Political Representation.” Stanford University

[3] Davidson, Roger H., and Walter J. Oleszek. “Being There: Hill Styles and Home Styles.”

Assignment 1 — Original + Revision

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Erik Jon Brenner

Sept. 8, 2015

*Revised* POLS 300  Assignment 1 : Reflecting on Representation

The concept of democracy in American politics heavily relies on proper representation of the people. Because democracy is defined as a system of government run by it’s whole population, representation is the major link between people and power. My personal idea of proper political representation is when groups of people have elected a leader, by a free, fair and open election, and who is accountable for them, hears what they have to say, and acts upon the needs of the people not for his or her own benefit, but rather the true benefit of the people. There are different levels of representation and varying degrees. An example of “good” representation would be when a group, minority or majority, has representation that covers all the multiple traits of their unique social distinction. Factors that comprise the groups traits range from: age, gender, socio-economic and educational status. More and different factors may be necessary for different groups but these seem to be the most common factors that affect every type of group in politics today. Naturally, If the group is seeking more group cohesion and representation especially when competing against other groups, they would elect someone who is similar to themselves. This poses a potential problem however. Just ‘looking’ like the constituents they represent does not legitimize their effectiveness in manufacturing policies that actually help the people being represented. A candidate or representative that represents a group based on what they actually do is an example of a ‘substantive’ leader. It is important to have substantive representation for groups and it is a major factor in defining what ‘good’ representation is. In my opinion, the highest and truest form of representation is acquiring a healthy balance of descriptive and substantive traits in a leader when representing a group. Ultimate transparency and accountability are also necessary traits for political actors who are representing constituents.

In a world of varying political theories and agendas it is difficult to make sense of everything. However, it is the representative’s job, and arguably their primary interest, to seek out what is necessary in order for who they represent to flourish. Instead of listing ideas or activities a member of congress does in order to represent their constituents, I will list what I believe is a more pragmatic ideology. Concrete behavior of a representative, and perhaps the most obvious is to actually meet face to face with their constituents and the various types and groups of people within and respond to letters from constituents that are sent to the representatives like we saw for Harold “Biz” Johnson. Attending seminars of matters that groups find important and to speak publicly at those events. How will the representative be able accomplish their job of delegating without knowing about, experiencing and listening to the very people they represent? I believe the best behavior a member of congress can engage in is taking the needs and wants from the various constituents and doing everything they can, within the legislative process and without bias towards one group, to represent them. Members of congress must also know when to act more as a delegate with utter transparency versus when to introduce their own judgement or experience, and act more as a trustee. “Any adequate theory of representation must grapple with these contradictory demands” (Dovi 2011) We will not know when we have reached proper and true representation. The reason is because not everyone will be happy or feel represented, mostly due to constituents opposing viewpoints and stances on matters. However, in my opinion, it is the representatives job to seek the most fair and balanced views of his or her constituents and do everything within their power to represent those views.

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*Revised* POLS 300  Assignment 1 : Reflecting on Representation

The concept of democracy in American politics heavily relies on proper representation of the people. Because democracy is defined as a system of government run by it’s whole population, representation is the major link between people and power. My personal idea of proper political representation is when groups of people have elected a leader, by a free, fair and open election, and who is accountable for them, hears what they have to say, and acts upon the needs of the people not for his or her own benefit, but rather the true benefit of the people. There are different levels of representation and varying degrees. An example of “good” representation would be when a group, minority or majority, has representation that covers all the multiple traits of their unique social distinction. Factors that comprise the groups traits range from: age, gender, socio-economic and educational status. More and different factors may be necessary for different groups but these seem to be the most common factors that affect every type of group in politics today. Naturally, If the group is seeking more group cohesion and representation especially when competing against other groups, they would elect someone who is similar to themselves. This poses a potential problem however. Just ‘looking’ like the constituents they represent does not legitimize their effectiveness in manufacturing policies that actually help the people being represented. A candidate or representative that represents a group based on what they actually do is an example of a ‘substantive’ leader. It is important to have substantive representation for groups and it is a major factor in defining what ‘good’ representation is. In my opinion, the highest and truest form of representation is acquiring a healthy balance of descriptive and substantive traits in a leader when representing a group. Ultimate transparency and accountability are also necessary traits for political actors who are representing constituents.

In a world of varying political theories and agendas it is difficult to make sense of everything. However, it is the representative’s job, and arguably their primary interest, to seek out what is necessary in order for who they represent to flourish. Instead of listing ideas or activities a member of congress does in order to represent their constituents, I will list what I believe is a more pragmatic ideology. Concrete behavior of a representative, and perhaps the most obvious is to actually meet face to face with their constituents and the various types and groups of people within and respond to letters from constituents that are sent to the representatives like we saw for Harold “Biz” Johnson. Attending seminars of matters that groups find important and to speak publicly at those events. How will the representative be able accomplish their job of delegating without knowing about, experiencing and listening to the very people they represent? I believe the best behavior a member of congress can engage in is taking the needs and wants from the various constituents and doing everything they can, within the legislative process and without bias towards one group, to represent them. Members of congress must also know when to act more as a delegate with utter transparency versus when to introduce their own judgement or experience, and act more as a trustee. “Any adequate theory of representation must grapple with these contradictory demands” (Dovi 2011) We will not know when we have reached proper and true representation. The reason is because not everyone will be happy or feel represented, mostly due to constituents opposing viewpoints and stances on matters. However, in my opinion, it is the representatives job to seek the most fair and balanced views of his or her constituents and do everything within their power to represent those views.

Dovi, Suzanne, “Political Representation”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/political-representation/>.

Assignment 1

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pols 300 assignment 1

Political Representation

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Ian Kelley
What is Political Representation?
For me personally my local United States Representative and California’s United States Senators have not provided what I would consider to be adequate political representation throughout the years that I have been politically active. My personal definition of political representation is as follows, representatives provide political representation when they use the legislative process in an endeavor to give what the constituents want from their government. This might include legislation to create new programs, continue to support already implemented statutes, and even in some cases the removal of funding going to a specific program. It is also helpful if a representative is aware of causes that are relevant to the representative’s constituents. When the representative holds similar ideological beliefs to the constituency that elected them this fact may help the representative to garner support for reelection it is not always helpful. When a representative has been elected and is doing the job I would expect some clear steps be taken while in office to ensure proper representation for a constituency. One way would be, participation in legislative debates about upcoming bills that have an impact on constituents. Using political capital to maintain funding for programs that have been deemed worthy of support by the constituency is another concrete step that representatives could take in order to ensure representation for their constituents. A representative’s re-election campaign is another step that I think is necessary to ensure proper political representation. Even if you may not agree with the policies of the incumbent representative the opportunity to hold them accountable through the electoral process may be our American political systems greatest asset. I stated at the beginning of this paper that I did not believe that I have had adequate political representation from my representatives over a number of election cycles, now I am not so sure. After the discussion in class about the different forms of representation I now can think of many examples of personal political representation. My mistaken belief that I was not being represented was based on my only intuitive understanding of the different forms of representation. I live in Thousand Oaks which is a conservative area and while on a substantive level the representation I have gotten may seem inadequate this is not the only measure of representation. After last week’s lecture and personal reflection I now see that no matter what political parties have been elected to the position of representing my district the very act of electing them has allowed this person to be my political representative. Elections are an exercise in Formal Representation that political parties use to maneuver themselves and their candidates into better positions in the government. Working with the documents of Bizz Johnson in class I think definitely gave me a better idea of how an elected official tries to provide substantive representation to their constituents while at the same time seeks to maintain some level of symbolic and descriptive representation. When his office would field inquiries about broad questions of continuing or ending the Vietnam War the response would mention large legislative votes or respond in a very normative fashion. All while still saying that he wants all troops to be safe no matter what policy the president engages in. Even with inquiries that were very specific to one piece of legislation Bizz’s office would draft statements that would provide non-normative details related to either implementation of the legislation or ways the constituent could help affect the vote. My new way of looking at political representation makes me believe that I may think certain policies are unwise but that does not mean I am not being political represented when those policies are advocated for

Representation

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A key part of democracy is active political representation. Its main purpose should be to act on behalf of the people who it is representing. Representation is defined, for the purposes of this course, as an elected official who acts as an intermediary between the People and the political process. He will advocate and make known what the people want. Once these officials have been democratically elected, they serve by making known the needs of the people they represent and addressing those needs through reform and action or non-action. There must exist a monitoring by the people through organizations that holds the elected officials accountable to their line of duty. (Dovi, 2011)When elected officials are up for re-election, the people show their approval or lack there of by re-electing them for political office. This can be considered an indicator of the political process working in democracy. In the federal level representatives of the fifty states gather year round and discuss policy issues in committees. They debate, voice out their personal opinions and that of their constituents and come to a consensus on what will be decided. Then end result should be a consensus on what policy decisions are best for the country as a whole and not what is best for their individual state. This becomes important for the process to work so that representation may be served equally amongst the people. In our class activity we got to go through mail that Congressman Johnson received during the time of the Vietnam War. We were instructed to tally all those we thought to be for the war and all those opposing the war. In the end we were to decide what his decision should be based on his constituents desires. The exercise demonstrated that there will exist winners and losers in the political process. Representation is the sum of what a group of people wants and what will be good for the whole body. When representation fails to meet both, it no longer can claim to be proportional. Presently there exists disproportional representation. This indicates that not enough is being done to hold elected officials accountable when serving the people. This responsibility lies on the people as they exercise their right by voting.

Works Cited

Dovi, S. (2011, Oct 17). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved Sep 1, 2015, from standford.edu: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/political-representation/

 

Food Diary

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I chose a Saturday to track my eating. I have done projects like this in the past, and I always find it interesting because so much of what I eat has no label and contains many ingredients, making it difficult to track contents exactly. For example, on this day my roommates and I made a giant bowl of ceviche for dinner, with fresh speared yellow tail and about a dozen other ingredients. It was too difficult to track every ingredient as several people worked on it. This brings me to a concern I have: When we tell people to closely constrict certain food components, are we sometimes dissuading them from eating fresh whole foods? On the flip side, during this process I thought a lot about how hard it can be to avoid certain food components if you do eat packaged or prepared food. As a new years resolution this year I gave up processed sugar, honey, syrup, and any other incredibly sugar dense foods. I have not regretted it since, but it can make it so difficult to buy certain foods and to eat out. Even things like multigrain flakes and whole grain bread have a surprising amount of sugar in them. When I buy these foods, I have to sort through so many labels to find one that works for me, even at a place like Whole Foods. Added salt is just as ubiquitous, so I imagine It must be very hard for people to select food with that restriction, especially if they shop at a store that doesn’t strive for healthy options.

Breakfast:
Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, sprouts, tomato, cucumber, and onion
Coffee with cream

Snack:
Smoothie- whole milk yogurt, blueberries, banana, 2% milk

Lunch:
Large Salad- many veggies, sunflower seeds, avocado
dressing- olive oil, garlic, vinegar, hemp seeds, salt and pepper, miso

Dinner:
Ceviche with chips, salad, and beans

Approximate salt for day (not including ceviche): 1,687 mg
Approximate fat for day (not including ceviche): 104.g g

I think it is easier for me to limit salt because we make most food from scratch in our house. I did pretty good on the salt score. I was pretty high for fat though. However, a decent chunk of that came from olive oil and avocado. All in all, I think the take home is that it is very difficult to keep track and restrictions can be very limiting.

Heart healthy diet

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I imagine how difficult it would be for a patient to suddenly switch their diet of comfort to a low-sodium heart healthy alternative. I’ve only experienced a patient’s reaction to this new diet once in clinical, and the first sentence expressed when looking at the cardiac tray was “That’s not real food, that’s cardboard”. I can’t help but think I would react similarly, as according to my daily assessment of sodium intake, a reduction in sodium would serve me well.

My meals consisted of:

Breakfast

-Whole wheat toast with 1/2 avocado (Na+ 280 mg + 10 mg)

-1 cup orange juice (Na+ 2 mg)

Lunch

-Trader Joe’s Field Fresh Chopped Salad with Grilled Chicken (Na+ 220 mg)

-1 cup seedless red grapes (Na+ 3 mg)

-Water

Snack

-Peanut butter pretzels (Na+ 160 mg)

-Water

Dinner

-1 cup Magic Mineral Chicken Broth with vegetables (Na+ 880 mg)

-1 serving Simply potatoes mashed potatoes (Na+ 330 mg)

 

Total sodium intake: 1,885 mg

Recommended 24 hour sodium intake: 1,500 mg

What’s the count?

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I decided to take a look at my diet on a day where I hadn’t slept too much, didn’t have time to cook, and had to work a very busy night shift. While I know that I have been eating healthy other days – incorporating salads and healthy snacks like hummus and carrots – I knew this day would be pretty bad. I thought it would be a good day to pick because I sort of had to eat what was quickly available to me, plus the sleep deprivation didn’t help me make the healthiest of choice. Basically, doing this meal check, I saw that just the burger put me well over the Heart Healthy diet needs. The sodium alone put me well over how much I would need to consume on a heart healthy diet. You have to wonder, how some patients manage to make the adjustment, especially if they are leading very busy lives both at home and work. I’m not saying it is not possible, but I can see it being very hard to change habits of eating out if it is something they do 1-3 times per week. Essentially they would have to stop all together or switch to healthier dining out options that can include fruits or salads.

 

“Breakfast” – Almond butter and honey toast

Almond butter (1tbs): Na 72 mg, Fats 1 g

Whole wheat bread: Na 132 mg, Fats 0 g

Honey: Na 1mg, Fats 0g

Water – Na 0, Fats 0g

 

“Lunch” – Habit cheeseburger and fries with water

Cheeseburger: Na 1,770mg, 36g fat

Fries: Na 164mg; Fat 3g

 

“Dinner” – None

 

Snacks – none because I forgot them on the counter at home before work, so LOTS of water on my overnight.

 

Meal Check

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My meal for today consisted of the following:

Breakfast:

-2 pieces of Orowheat Country Potato Toast and 2 pieces of  Laughing Cow Swiss Cheese  (Fat: 10g// Na: 650 )

Lunch (Sharky’s Wood Fire Mexican Grill):

-Chicken Breast Half Power Plate with Mexican Rice and Grilled Vegetables (Fat: 10.1g// Na: 1391.7 mg)

Dinner

-Habit Charburger and 1.5 size order of fries (Fat: 62g// Na: 2370 mg)

Based on my diet for today, I think I will have a difficult time adjusting to a low fat and low sodium diet because most of the foods that I enjoy eating are dependent on fats and sodium. Also, being from a Filipino culture, most of our dishes are high in sodium and fat. Therefore, the taste would just be different and maybe difficult to adjust to.

Nathan Altman 2015-09-09 06:52:33

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Political Representation