ABSTRACT
Step one in the construction of the matrix is a detailed analysis of the variable measuring the type of political voice. Having a voice in the political system necessitates participation in person or through a representative. As the cases used here all work on the principle of representatives making decisions on behalf of the larger group, discussion will concentrate upon ideas surrounding representation. The chapter begins by confronting the charge that groups are not viable units of analysis in democratic or indeed any political theory. After laying this charge to rest we construct a working definition of the particular type of group we are studying, giving it the label of ‘sub-state national group’. In particular, this definition is concerned to address questions regarding what differentiates a sub-state national group from other ethno-cultural groups, and how group membership is determined. In the course of addressing these questions, we take up some of the more pressing conceptual and empirical objections to group-differentiated political theories. Examples from the five country studies serve to interrogate and thereby clarify our analysis. The second part of this chapter considers a variety of arguments about group representation and in particular two key questions: how many representatives are needed, and how are they to be chosen? Our goal is to canvass the range of answers provided to these questions in the existing literature, drawing the necessary links among them in order to derive a set of distinct and analytically useful categories for classifying political voice. These categories are summarised in the final section of the chapter.
