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• Election and Representation

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  Levente Nagy

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  Whether we approach representation in a wider sense (philosophical) or in a narrower sense (political), the concept is – either way – polysemic, because its meaning is determined in many respects by many factors. Representation therefore should be delt with as a contested concept. Political representation – it turns out – is a modern concept, in which the particular but very complex relationship between the representative and represented has been brought in close relationship with such basic concepts as freedom, democracy, free elections and justice, whereas political representation had litte or nothing to do with these core values earlier. In spite of the pluralist interpretation of the concept, we can distinguish statistical and substantive political representation, the first referring to voters’ political preferences expressed in Parliamentary seats, while the substantive representation refers to the content of the governmental decisions in public affairs, with respect to social expectations. The purpose of this paper is to examine political representation through morphological method, for a better understanding of its inner structure and of the interdependency of its core elements.