Parliament the Mirror of the Nation: Representation, Deliberation, and Democracy in Victorian Britain

ISBN-13: 9781108428736 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 432 str.

Gregory Conti

Opis

How did the Victorian era - the epoch when the modern democratic state was made - understand democracy, parliamentary representation, and diversity? Here, Gregory Conti examines how the Victorians conceived the representative and deliberative functions of the House of Commons and what it meant for parliament to be the 'mirror of the nation'.

Recenzje

'In Parliament the Mirror of the Nation: Representation, Deliberation, and Democracy in Victorian Britain, Gregory Conti guides us through this Victorian conversation with skill and erudition.' Philip Harling, Victorian Studies

Spis treści

Acknowledgments; Notes on the text; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Diversity without democracy, the theory of the variety of suffrages, Part 1: Institutions and sociologies; 1.1. Mirroring and electoral diversity before the First Reform Act; 1.2. Institutions and Sociologies; 1.3. The Decline of the variety of suffrages; 2. Diversity without democracy, the theory of the variety of suffrages, Part 2: Values and criticisms; 2.1. Justice; 2.2 The rule of public opinion; 2.3. Deliberation; 2.4. Stability; 3. Democracy, diversity, and contestability: democracy against the variety of suffrages; 3.1. Diverse democracy; 3.2. Radical or undescriptive democracy; 4. Diversity with democracy? Proportional representation, Part 1: Concepts and techniques; 4.1 The pre-history of PR in Britain; 4.2. The institutional and conceptual core of Victorian PR; 5. Diversity with democracy? Proportional representation, Part 2: The debate on PR's moral and political effects; 5.1. The moral benefits of PR; 5.2. Millian rebuttals: the local constituency and the threat of stagnation; 5.3. The problem of parties; Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index.