Editing Edmund Burke (section)

==Representative government==
In 1774, Burke's ''Speech to the Electors at Bristol at the Conclusion of the Poll'' was noted for its defence of the principles of [[Representation (politics)|representative]] government against the notion that those elected to assemblies like Parliament are, or should be, merely delegates:

<blockquote>Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a Representative, to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any sett of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the Law and the Constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your Representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.</blockquote><blockquote>My worthy Colleague says, his Will ought to be subservient to yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent. If Government were a matter of Will upon any side, yours, without question, ought to be superior. But Government and Legislation are matters of reason and judgement, and not of inclination; and, what sort of reason is that, in which the determination precedes the discussion; in which one sett of men deliberate, and another decide; and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant from those who hear the arguments?</blockquote><blockquote>To deliver an opinion is the right of all men; that of constituents is a weighty and respectable opinion which a Representative ought always to rejoice to hear; and which he ought always most seriously to consider. But ''authoritative'' instructions; ''mandates'' issued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and conscience; these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenour of our constitution.</blockquote><blockquote>Parliament is not a ''congress'' of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but Parliament is a ''deliberative'' assembly of ''one'' nation, with ''one'' interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member, indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of ''Parliament''.<ref>{{cite web|website=oil.libertyfund.org|url=https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/burke-select-works-of-edmund-burke-vol-4|title=Burke Select Works}}</ref><ref>''The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. Volume I'' (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854), pp. 446–448.</ref></blockquote>

It is often forgotten in this connection{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}} that Burke, as detailed below, was an [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|opponent of slavery]], and therefore his conscience was refusing to support a trade in which [[Bristol slave trade|many of his Bristol electors]] were lucratively involved.

Political scientist [[Hanna Pitkin]] points out that Burke linked the interest of the district with the proper behaviour of its elected official, explaining: "Burke conceives of broad, relatively fixed interest, few in number and clearly defined, of which any group or locality has just one. These interests are largely economic or associated with particular localities whose livelihood they characterize, in his over-all prosperity they involve".<ref>Hanna Fenichel Pitkin, ''The concept of representation'' (1972) p. 174</ref>

Burke was a leading sceptic with respect to democracy. While admitting that theoretically in some cases it might be desirable, he insisted a democratic government in Britain in his day would not only be inept, but also oppressive. He opposed democracy for three basic reasons. First, government required a degree of intelligence and breadth of knowledge of the sort that occurred rarely among the common people. Second, he thought that if they had the vote, common people had dangerous and angry passions that could be aroused easily by demagogues, fearing that the authoritarian impulses that could be empowered by these passions would undermine cherished traditions and established religion, leading to violence and confiscation of property. Third, Burke warned that democracy would create a tyranny over [[Tyranny of the majority|unpopular minorities]], who needed the protection of the upper classes.<ref>Joseph Hamburger, "Burke, Edmund" in Seymour Martin Lipset, ed., ''The Encyclopedia of Democracy'' (Congressional Quarterly, 1995) 1:147–149</ref>