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Representative Government is a system of government where citizens elect leaders to carry out and make public policy. It is usually by institutional guarantees like periodic elections of the leaders of government, a free press, freedom of public debate, freedom to associate and some degree of governmental accountability.

We can largely trace the invention of Representative Government as we currently conceive it to the French Revolution, American Revolution and England after the English Civil War. Since then, it has become a very popular form of government, and many of the institutions it embodies have become synonymous with Representative Democracy and Democracy more generally.

The Principles of Bernard Manin
Bernard Manin argues in "The Principles of Representative Government" that political regimes labelled "representative governments" have 4 fundamental characteristics in common.
 * 1) Partial Independence of Representatives. Elected representatives are not be legally bound by campaign promises, or instructions from the public. They must have some agency in what parts of their agenda to enact, or whether to enact it at all.
 * 2) Freedom of Public Opinion. The public must have the freedom to form and express opinions that may disagree with their government. For this condition to be met, the public must have access to political information and the right to publicly express their opinions based on this political information.
 * 3) The Repeated Character of Elections. Elections must be frequent enough so as to provide the possibility of accountability. Repeated elections are important in large part because it is essential that elected representatives anticipate that they will be punished electorally by voters for bad behavior.
 * 4) Trial by Discussion. Decisions must be subject to some sort of persuasive discussion on the merits of the policy before being passed into law. This principle comes from the need to produce some sort of consensus among elected representatives and public interests that will have different, competing ideas. In a representative government, persuasive discussion is the mechanism by which a majority (parliamentary or otherwise) forms around a policy direction.

History
Bernard Manin traces the invention of Representative Government to the 17th and 18th centuries, specifically in England, America and France. Its popularity among the political elites who would go on to establish it in their respective countries largely comes from how it conceptually marries social contract theory with some ancient democratic principles. Social contract theory required that the people consent to a form of government for it to be legitimate, while ancient democratic principles rested on beliefs of equality. Representative Government and elections allowed for both of these ideas to exist, as the people consent to who will govern them by participating in elections, and there is a sense of equality in the principle of "one man, one vote".

It is clear that Manin views the first Representative Governments as post-revolutionary America, post-revolutionary France and eighteenth century England. It is important to note that the inventors and pioneers of representative government (for example, James Madison), settled on it as an alternative to what they viewed as pure democracy, which often incorporated random selection or lot as a method for selection of its rulers. Crucially, part of the attraction of representative government to thinkers at the time was its aristocratic element, that, through election, the best of society would be selected and therefore rule.

Since its invention, representative government has evolved to keep up with changes in the societies it was set up to govern. For example, political parties were originally not a part of its structure or theory, but emerged to deal with larger electorates, fundamentally changing how representative government operates. This led to the coherent policy platforms, ideological nature of elections, and legislative voting groups that we now view as characteristic of representative government. Similarly, the development of mass media like radio, television, and even the internet has changed how representative government operates, as leaders have become far more visible to the public.

Over time, Representative Government has become almost synonymous with democracy and representative democracy, despite the fact that it was originally viewed as a system different to democracy. Pierre Rosanvallon traces this conflation and merging of the terms to the early 1800's, specifically noting that Tocqueville's characterization of America as a democratic society contributed to the relationship between democracy and representative government. Then, when in 1848 France granted universal suffrage, democracy became the more popular term to describe the institutions and practices previously associated with representative government.

The Delegate vs The Trustee
There has long been a debate over how a representative should act in a representative government. One school of thought argues that the representative is essentially a "delegate" for the people. In this capacity, a representative's role is fundamentally to reflect the views of their constituents, regardless of what that representative might believe personally. The opposing view, famously argued by Edmund Burke, is that a representative should act as a "trustee". In this capacity, a representative's role is to exercise their own judgement over matters, guarding the interests of their constituents as they see fit, without necessarily doing what their constituents believe is correct. It has been noted by scholars that modern representatives act as both a "delegate" and a "trustee" at different times, depending on how much their constituents care about an issue. Bernard Manin notes that our conception of "good" representation has changed over time. While at the founding of Representative Government (and the time of Edmund Burke), it was often believed that a good representative was a "trustee" of the people, this has changed as the introduction of party platforms and more ideological politics has brought the "delegate" view more into fashion.

On the Relationship Between Representative Government and Democracy
Bernard Manin has characterized Representative Government as a "mixed" form of government, as in, it is neither perfectly democratic nor aristocratic. He argues this because, while representative government offers citizens the opportunity to hold their government to account, and provides equality of the vote (democratic features), it also provides a mechanism (election) by which some form of political elite will end up ruling the country (an aristocratic feature).

However, in "Representative Democracy: Principles and Genealogy", Nadia Urbinati pushes back against this characterization of political representation as intrinsically elitist. Drawing on the ideas of Emmanuel Sieyes and Thomas Paine, she upholds that representation is entirely compatible with democracy, and can actually improve it. She argues that direct democracy offers no real recourse to the minority, as the decisions of the majority must be unilaterally adopted. However, in large societies with divided labor, it is inevitable that differing interests will arise and that different groups will want different policy. In a direct democracy, the smaller groups would have no recourse and no real ability to affect government, but in a representative system, they could organize and elect representatives who could then advocate for them. Representation in government allows for the filtering of the public's will, and the combination of all aspects of this will into a final product that all can identify with. Furthermore, she argues that direct democracy doesn't have built-in mechanisms for constant consultation and connection between citizens and their government, whereas in a representative system, the representatives will have a desire to consult with the people, and the people know they can advocate for their interests with their representatives. Therefore, representation not only increases the stability of government, as it allows the minority to advocate for itself within the system, but it also creates a constant connection between citizens and their government.