Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2009
Discontent with the functioning of representative bodies is hardly new. Most of them were born and developed in the face of opposition denying their legitimacy and their feasibility. Most have lived amid persistent unfriendly attitudes, ranging from the total hostility of anti-democrats to the pessimistic assessments of such diverse commentators as Lord Bryce, Walter Lippmann, and Charles de Gaulle. Of particular interest today is the discontent with representative bodies expressed by the friends of democracy, the supporters of representative government, many of whom see in recent history a secular ‘decline of parliament’ and in prospect the imminent demise of representative bodies.
1 The best analytical surveys of representation theory are those of Birch, A. H., Representative and Responsible Government (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1964)Google Scholar, and de Grazia, Alfred, Public and Republic (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1951).Google Scholar
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7 Almond, Gabriel A. and Verba, Sidney, The Civic Culture (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar More recently Almond has specifically identified this kind of model as a sort of paradigm for developed representative political systems, listing ‘responsiveness’ (to demand inputs) as a capability of the most developed political systems. Almond, Gabriel A., ‘A Developmental Approach to Political Systems’, World Politics XVII (1965), 183–214, especially 197 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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64 Drop in proportion saying other regime better than France, 25 per cent for G.B.; 28 per cent for U.S.A.; 7 per cent for Italy; 31 per cent for West Germany; 16 per cent for U.S.S.R. Increase in proportion saying French worked better: 15 per cent for G.B.; 13 per cent for U.S.A.; 1 per cent for Italy; 14 per cent for West Germany; 9 per cent for U.S.S.R. Sondages, XXVI (1), (1966).Google Scholar
65 Iowa City Form of Government Study, 1966, Code Book. University of Iowa Laboratory for Political Research.
66 A.I.P.O. 17 July 1939, and 8 August 1939, reported in ‘The Quarter's Polls’, Public Opinion Quarterly, X (4), 632.Google Scholar The remainder of responses in each instance were DK and NA.
67 49 per cent and 51 per cent in two separate polls in September 1946, for example. A.I.P.O. reported in ‘The Quarter's Polls’, Public Opinion Quarterly, III (4), 580.Google Scholar
68 Survey Research Center, 1966, SRC Study 0504, ICPR Preliminary Code Book.
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