ABSTRACT
However, beyond an assumed essential requirement of political representation, is the further, if lesser, concern institutionally that the elected legislature should be representative of the electorate in a demographic sense: that those elected to it should comprise in their personal characteristics a microcosm of the wider society in terms of salient social
categories such as class, ethnicity, language or religion (see Box 9.2 ). Th e legitimacy of democratic institutions may come to depend on concern being shown for such demographic representation, particularly if there is a perception amongst the electorate that a signifi cant link can be assumed between a politician’s social characteristics, whether class, race or sex, and their political attitudes, beliefs and behaviour.
