Lecture | Workshop
The Principles of Representative Government: Thirty Years Later
- Henk te Velde and Hugo Bonin
- Date
- Thursday 20 February 2025 - Friday 21 February 2025
- Location
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Conference room (2.60)
Published in French 1995 and translated into English in 1997, Bernard Manin’s Principles of Representative Government stands as one of the classic works on the question of political representation. Favorably reviewed as soon as it came out, the book has since enjoyed considerable success, both in academia and beyond. Bridging historical analysis and political theorising, Manin offered a lasting contribution, which still shapes discussions of election, representation, democracy or sortition to this day. This workshop is the occasion for a critical reappraisal of the core ideas of the book, as well as a study of its reception and its impact in debates on political representation.
Programme
Thursday 20 February
15h30 - Introductory remarks - Henk te Velde (Leiden) and Hugo Bonin (Jyväskylä)
16h-18h - Keynote session - Chair Antoine Chollet (Lausanne)
- Biancamaria Fontana (Lausanne) - On the Genesis of the Principles: the Invention of the Modern Republic
- Samuel Hayat (CNRS) - Manin on the Syllabus: How to Teach (with) Manin's Classic
- Josine Blok (Utrecht) - Representation in Democratic Athens: Manin’s Principles Revisited
Friday 21 February
9h-10h30 - Session 1 - History, 18th-19th century - Chair: Henk te Velde
- Arthur Ghins (Bruxelles): What was ‘Representative Government’?
- Anne Engelst Nørgaard (Trondheim): Petitions and Representative Government
- Pasi Ihalainen (Jyväskylä): On Parliamentary Government in the 19th Century
10h30 - 11h Coffee break
11h-12h30 Session 2 - History, 19th-20th century - Chair: Hugo Bonin
- Anne Heyer (Leiden): Representation and the Rise of Political Parties
- Zoé Kergomard (Zürich): Contested Representation. Swiss Political Parties in Post-War Election Campaigns
- Ido de Haan (Utrecht): Post-Democratic Representation: Leaders, Experts and Brokers in an Audience Democracy
12h30 - 13h30 - Lunch break
13h30-14h30 - Session 3 - Theory - Chair: Samuel Hayat (CNRS)
- Antoine Chollet (Lausanne): Referendum and Representative Government
- Pierre Étienne Vandamme (UC Louvain): Can Elections Be Egalitarian?
14h30h-15h30 - General discussion and conclusion - Henk te Velde and Hugo Bonin
16h - Social drink
Co-funded by Pasi Ihalainen’s Academy of Finland Professorship (#21000061931) and Leiden University.
Registration
This is an in-person event with a limited number of places available. Please register with Felix Bosch via: f.r.bosch@hum.leidenuniv.nl
