Qualidade da representação política: sobre o que estamos falando?

Abstract

What is a good political representative? One of the fundamental themes of democratic theory refers to the process of aligning citizens' preferences with those of policy makers, that is, the expression of the accountability model. In the traditional version, elections would be a privileged moment to punish or reward those responsible for the government, where the good rulers would be brought back to power, while the inefficient ones would be removed. However, this is not a simple and direct question, due to the semantic heterogeneity discussed by the different authors, as well as the structures of costs and benefits naturally related to the political system. This article establishes an analytical connection pointing out the main critical links throughout the process of responsiveness discussed by the literature in the field of Political Science.