This research investigates the following question: Are legislators agents of the people, or are legislators representatives who determine their own policy positions? This question is addressed in this research within the context of what the role of legislators in the United States should be, as opposed to what that role is. In actual fact, legislators in the United States are representatives whose policy positions are not directly dependent upon the positions of their constituents. Although this system is embedded in the Constitution of the United States, valid questions have been posed related to both the capacity of such a system to represent the interests of all population groups and the equity of such a system in application. This research examines the issues underlying the concepts of legislators as agents and legislators as representatives, the realities of constituent representation under the existing American system, and potential changes that might lead to a more equitable system in the United States.
Issues Underlying American Representative Democracy
The history of political philosophy is the succession of ideas concerning the organization of humanity into collectives. Political philosophy is philosophical in character because it is concerned with values, as well as with description. The principal emphasis of political philosophers has been the definition of justice, together with the conceptualization methods for its perpetuation through the development of functioning political systems. Political philosophy is assumed to have had its beginnings in the Greek city-state. Because of the small size of these city-states, political deliberations could occur, andpolitical decisions could be made in face-to-face situations by all individuals concerned. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle provided the enduring values associated with the political philosophy developed in the Greek city-states....