Arctic indigenous representation in national parliaments

Abstract

ABSTRACT National parliaments in democracies are key arenas for political deliberation, national agenda setting, and public negotiation of interests. In addition – of course – they legislate and control the government. Accordingly, the ways that the interests of Indigenous people in the Arctic are represented in national parliaments are important for their current and future autonomy from the nation-state. Setting from the concept of representation as defined by Pitkin (1967), this article reviews the scholarly literature on the national parliamentary representation of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic. Doing so, it takes a first, comparative look at this topic, discusses the formal, descriptive, and substantive representation of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic, and asks if there is a certain Arctic model of Indigenous national representation. The review shows that none of the Arctic Indigenous peoples are formally represented in their national parliament as a demos, and descriptive Indigenous representation is rather low (except in the case of the Danish parliament). Additionally, although similar formal and informal institutions seem to influence the substantive representation of Indigenous interests it is not fitting to talk of a particular Arctic model of Indigenous national representation.