Pinning down representation

Abstract

This chapter critically examines the most sophisticated and systematic version of the constructivist turn in recent scholarly work on political representation: that of Michael Saward and his theory of the representative claim. I argue that the constructivist turn means treating representation as inherently opaque and unstable; representation is an event and, as such, ultimately impossible to pin down. There are three areas where Saward does not take the full constructivist turn. They are, first, the notion of the referent, which is not constituted through the representative claim; second, while Saward argues that the representative claim is an event that cannot be pinned down, it remains transparent and stable in some respects; and, third, the normative aspects of the theory remain within the horizon of a future in which we may one day be able to pin down the meaning of the representative claim. To help make this case and show how Saward’s theory of the representative claim can be radicalised, the chapter enlists his own texts as well as Jacques Derrida’s deconstructive readings of discourses of representation.