Surrogate Representative Claim-Making

This paper draws together debates over types of political representation and their normative implications with the broader constructivist turn and its consideration of representative claim-making and constituency-making. It does so through an examination of surrogate representative claim-making. The paper explores surrogate representative claim-making by both individual elected representatives and political parties drawing on extensive qualitative research conducted in Australia. Australia offers a particularly good case with: a) an electoral system allowing for both a prominent role for parties and individual elected representatives; b) a mix of parties, both government forming and non-government forming parties; and, c) a significant number of non-party (independent) elected representatives. The empirical analysis is built on a range of sources including analysis of party documents and campaign material, speeches by elected representatives, in addition to interviews with both current and former elected representatives and party officials at both the federal (national) and state (sub-national) levels. Despite the under-exploration of surrogate representative claim-making in the literature, the paper demonstrates both the ubiquity and variety of surrogate representative claims and the consequent need for further consideration of their normative implications.