Dependent Claim-Makers and Representation

• In Event: Disability Policy in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The literature on representation looks at how the interests of citizens are and can be (better) represented in democracies. Yet, despite a particular focus on politically underrepresented groups, a serious blind spot in the literature is the exclusion of the around 25% of the population (including persons with cognitive disabilities and persons with severe somatic diseases) who either temporarily or permanently cannot make political claims and represent themselves independently. I conceptualize this group as dependent claim-makers. Through interviews with civil servants and ministers in charge of creating a new governmental policy on the human rights of persons with intellectual disabilities in Norway, this article gives unique insights into a governmental policy process in the case of dependent claim-makers. It shows how policy making for dependent claim-makers risks operating outside of effective democratic control. The article identifies policymakers’ identification with the underrepresented group’s challenges, their knowledge, and effective accountability mechanisms as particularly important to increase representation, and suggest how such factors can be strengthened. The inclusion of dependent claim-makers in the representation literature is of critical importance for our understanding of how human beings (can) have their interests represented and secured – in all phases and variations of life.

Author

• Kjersti Skarstad