Introduction : political representation in liberal democracies / Robert Rohrschneider and Jacque Thomassen -- I. Concepts and theories of political representation -- The evolution of political representation in liberal democracies : concepts and practices / Jane Mansbridge -- The formation and development of liberal democracies / Carles Boix, Will Horne and Alex Kerchner -- The cultural pre-requisites of democracy / Christian Welzel -- The institutional framework of representative democracy : comparing the populist-majoritarian and the liberal/consensual model / Rudy B. Andeweg and Tom Louwerse -- Electoral integrity / Carolien van Ham -- II. Elite orientations and behaviour -- Roll-call voting behavior in legislatures / Simon Hug -- Constituency candidates and political representation / Thomas Zittel -- III. Descriptive representation -- Descriptive representation revisited / Anne Philips -- Gender equality / Karen Celis and Silvia Erzeel -- Regional and ethnic minorities / Didier Ruedin -- Sortition and mini-publics : a different kind of representation / David Farrell and Peter Stone -- IV. Party government and representation -- The model of party government / Richard S. Katz -- Party competition and representation / Russell Dalton -- Party government and voters / Wouter van der Brug, Eelco Harteveld and Jaap van Slageren -- Parliamentarians and party groups : the role of intra-party unity / Reuven Y. Hazan and Reut Itzkovich-Malka -- Intra-party democracy and representation : necessity, complement, or challenge? / Thomas Poguntke and Susan E. Scarrow -- Parties' election manifestos and public policies / Robert Thomson -- Opinion-policy congruence / Zoe Lefkofridi -- Mandate versus accountability / G. Bingham Powell Jr. -- Political equality and turnout / André Blais, Ruth Dassonneville and Filip Kostelka -- Feeling represented / Sören Holmberg -- V. Beyond elections as instruments of representative democracy -- Referendums and direct democracy / Céline Colombo and Hanspeter Kriesi -- Interest groups and the market for representation / Jeremy Richardson -- Non-electoral participation / Jan W. van Deth -- Dynamic representation / Christopher Wlezien -- VI. Challenges to representative democracy : domestic origins -- Non-majoritarian institutions and representation / Mark Bovens and Thomas Schillemans -- Print, electronic and social media and the transformation of democratic representation / Mark Peffley, Alexander Denison and Travis N. Taylor -- VII. Challenges to representative democracies : populism -- The populist challenge to liberal democracies / Pippa Norris -- The rise of populism in modern democracies / Thomas M. Meyer and Markus Wagner -- Populists in power : populism and representation in illiberal democracies / Zsolt Enyedi and Stephen Whitefield -- VIII. Challenges to representative democracy : international aspects -- Globalization, electoral change and representation / Timothy Hellwig -- Representation and the European Union / Sara B. Hobolt -- Does economic and political integration undermine representative democracy? Lessons from the 2008 economic crisis in the European Union / Jorge M. Fernandes and Pedro Magalhães -- Globalisation and representative democracy : normative challenges / Richard Bellamy.

"How can democracies effectively represent citizens? The goal of this Handbook is to evaluate comprehensively how well the interests and preferences of mass publics become represented by institutions in liberal democracies. It first explores how the idea and institutions of liberal democracies were formed over centuries and became enshrined in Western political systems. The contributors to this Handbook, made up of the world's leading scholars on the various aspects of political representation, examine how well the political elites and parties who are charged with the representation of the public interest meet their duties. Clearly, institutions often fail to live up to their own representation goals. With this in mind, the contributors explore several challenges to the way that the system of representation is organized in modern democracies. For example, actors such as parties and established elites face rising distrust among electorates. Also, the rise of international problems such as migration and environmentalism suggests that the focus of democracies on nation states may have to shift to a more international level. All told, this Handbook illuminates the normative and functional challenges faced by representative institutions in liberal democracies"-- Provided by publisher.