'Re'- Presentation: What Does Michael R. Kane Represent?

16 Pages Posted: 29 Mar 2010 Last revised: 31 Mar 2010

Abstract

Disch's critique on the metaphysic of presence allows us to re-evaluate the Rousseau v. Madison debate in order to rethink political representation. In both theories we find equality among men as an undisputed issue, as given in advance, in the same way in which the original 're' of Pitkin's definition of re-presentation creates givenness-in-advance as one of its effects (Disch, 2008: 31). Rousseau's rational ideal attempts to assure a pre-given equality by means of radical autonomy, while Madison institutional design does so by a theory ofrepresentation and a system of checks and balances. However, equality remains unproblematic by these meta-political projects, when it is precisely the problematic character of equality that is at odds with political representation inside the concept itself. When we say that Michael F. Kane represents the City of Holyoke (in theMassachusetts legislature), we falsely reshape Holyoke in the distorted image of Michael F. Kane. By opposing this fictional white-Irish-Christian-bourgeois-democrat-conservative-male community with the City of Holyoke, we can devise the internal limits of the concept of re-presentation. The City of Holyoke is iteratively 're'-presented in Michael F. Kane, because it is absent (Macherey,1978). Michael F. Kane (taken as a representative) represents the City of Holyoke (taken as constituency) to the extent that there is not a City of Holyoke beyond the self-contained process of 're'-presentation. There is not a constituency that is represented, but a 're'-presentation that builds itself overa re-invention of the same constituency, once and again in its repetition, which means the absence of a diversity incapable of being repeated and so always put into the margins of Michael F. Kane's fictional identity.

Keywords: Representation, Pitkin, Performative, Silences, Iteration

Suggested Citation

Castro, Andres Fabian Henao, 'Re'- Presentation: What Does Michael R. Kane Represent?. Western Political Science Association 2010 Annual Meeting Paper , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1580938

Andres Fabian Henao Castro (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

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