Luis Felipe Miguel’s contribution to the discussion on interests in the context of democratic representation

Abstract

In this article I discuss Luis Felipe Miguel’s contribution to the contemporary debate on interests in the context of democratic representation. I first assess the debate Pitkin and Manin open. Pitkin analyzes representation as authorization, accountability, description and symbolism. Identifying the need to treat it as an activity, the author exposes its two axis of contention, even when representation is studied systemically: between the representation of individual and collective interests, and between the fiduciary and imperative mandates. From a systemic and historical study, Manin also analyzes elements constitutive of governments based on representation. Miguel realizes the interests as simultaneously individual and general, produced in social processes of universalization. This concept thus thickens as it involves aspects such as the material conditions of a society and its mechanisms for the circulation of ideas, such as the organization of mass media