revue française de science politique 66-1, février 2016

Virginie Dutoya et Samuel Hayat

MAKING REPRESENTATIVE CLAIMS. THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

Does the notion of a representative claim, defended in particular by Michael Saward, introduce a constructivist turn in the study of political representation? The idea that representatives impose an identity on the represented already existed in Hobbes or Pierre Bourdieu. But Anglo-American political theory, especially since Hanna Pitkin's book, was built on a conception of representation as composition, in which the represented existed before its representation. The interest of Saward's approach is to consider representative claims as proposals that might or might not be accepted, rejected or rearticulated by the represented. The articles in this special issue take this approach seriously and put them to the test in different field studies, emphasizing the performative and establishing capacity, and inscription in power relations, of representative claims.

Keywords: political representation, claim, constructivism, Thomas Hobbes, Pierre Bourdieu, feminism, Michael Saward, institution.

Marieke Louis

A WORLD PARLIAMENT OF LABOUR? INVESTIGATING ON A CENTURY OF TRIPARTITE REPRESENTATION AT THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION

Since its creation in 1919, the International Labour Organisation, which is in charge of regulating industrial relations among states and setting up principles of social justice, has claimed to embody a "world parliament of labour". On what institutional mechanisms and action strategies relies such a claim? How has the ILO built up, justified and reformed its representativeness over time? The socio-historical analysis of the representative mechanisms and their criticism by actors who feel badly represented (government, trade unions and employers' organizations, cooperatives, nongovernmental organizations) allows us to deconstruct the parliamentary claim and to unveil, over the long term, some of the key characteristics of a representational system that is both international and tripartite: non-electoral, selective, technocratic but which can also adapt and even improvise.

Keywords: representativeness, parliament, International Labour Organisation, tripartite representation, claim, margins.

Virginie Dutoya

A REPRESENTATIVE CLAIM MADE IN THE NAME OF WOMEN? QUOTAS AND WOMEN'S POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN (1917-2010)

In the 1930s, women's reserved seats were implemented in political assemblies in British India, and they still exist in India and Pakistan nowadays. In a socio-historical perspective, this article examines how the issue of women's political representation has been framed in India and Pakistan, from the colonial periods onwards. In particular, political authorities (colonial and national) have made “representative claims” in the name of women, by claiming that they constituted a legitimate political category, that ought to be represented as such, through reserved seats if need be. Using a large corpus of archives (committees' reports, constitutional and legislative debates) as well as interviews, the article shows how the implementation of quotas participates in the legitimation of the representative system, and by ways of consequences, of the authority of the State.

Keywords: political representation, women, quotas, South Asia, gender.

Marie-Hélène Sa Vilas Boas

HOW SOME ACTORS BECOME A REPRESENTATIVE IN BRAZILIAN PARTICIPATORY INSTITUTIONS?

How do certain actors build representatives position in Brazilian participative devices? Based on study of the women's municipal conferences of Recife, this article analyses the social anchoring of representation in participatory institutions. It shows that the construction of a representative position rests, first, on the transformation of personalized relations into a support group and second, on a permanent mediation between the inhabitants of a territory and public institutions.

Keywords: participatory democracy, representation, social anchoring, gender studies, Brazil.

Julien Talpin

REPRESENTATION AS A PERFORMANCE: EMBODYING POOR PEOPLE’S GROUP IN TWO COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN LOS ANGELES, USA

Descriptive representation has often been conceptualized along the opposition between a politics of ideas and a politics of presence. This article argues that the legitimacy of the representation of historically marginalized groups requires above all an interactional performance from the representatives, who has to embody the group in her practices which give rise to several public proofs. This dramaturgic approach is explored through the study of American community organizations that claim to represent poor people, and in so doing unify them beyond the race and class boundaries that divide them. Conceptualizing representation as a set of proofs allows understanding it as an interactive and contingent process that can be politically inclusive or exclusive.

Keywords: poor people, community, democracy, public proofs, intersectionality, descriptive representation.

John Pitseys

PUBLICITY AND TRANSPARENCY. THE STATUTE OF REPRESENTATION AND POLITICAL VISIBILITY FOR KELSEN AND SCHMITT

The legal and philosophical debate opposing Carl Schmitt to Hans Kelsen doesn't stage only two different conceptions of law and representation. The theme of political visibility plays a determining role as well. What is the difference between political publicity and transparency, and what consequences to draw in terms of justification of our political regimes? For this question to be broached, this paper retraces the schmittian critique to Kelsen's conception of law and political publicity. Its exposes the main features of the conception of transparency that Schmitt intends to substitute to the principle of publicity. Finally, it will be shown that Kelsen's answer to Schmitt allows overstepping both the limits of schmittian text and the difficulties met by the parliamentary legislative state.

Keywords: legal philosophy, political philosophy, political transparency, political publicity, political representation, Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, pluralism,