Review article
HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT OF REPRESENTATION. ELEMENTS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MODERN THEORY OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION I
Luka Ribarević
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Domagoj Vujeva
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In this text, the authors’ starting point is that the modern conception of representation,
decisively connected with the state as modern type of political
order, not only represents a radical cut with regard to pre-modern forms
of representation, but is also the result of evolution through which many
key elements of the antique and medieval perception of representation were
built into the modern perception. This is confirmed by two eminently modern
theories of representation: the theory of Hobbes and the theory of Hegel. In
both cases, the theories prove to be largely based on the antique and medieval
legal-political heritage. With Hobbes, the basis consists primarily of the idea
of legal representation, and with Hegel, of the idea of identity representation.
Both ideas are gradually developed in civil law and canon law. This part of the
text focuses on the part of history of representation which culminated in the
perception of representation according to the model of legal representation.
For this purpose, the authors first discuss the definition of representation in
the Roman period and in early Christianity, and then they investigate how the
antique heritage was reinterpreted in medieval civil law and canon law.
Keywords
representation; political representation; Thomas Hobbes; G. W. F. Hegel
Hrčak ID:
74117
URI
Publication date:
18.11.2011.
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