Graham, A; (2020) The principle of representation in Jamaica and the British Atlantic in the age of revolutions, 1768-1807. Parliaments, Estates and Representation , 40 (1) pp. 1-20. 10.1080/02606755.2019.1617505.

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Abstract

Britons and Americans seem to have agreed about most constitutional principles in 1776, apart from who was to be represented and how, and it has been argued that this formed the basis for conflict and revolution. Examining how representation was conceptualised in Jamaica during the same period suggests that these differences have been overdrawn. Concepts of direct and ‘virtual’ representation were inchoate and inconsistent in all three places, and were often used strategically rather than to express essential and irreconcilable differences. Consequently the debate over representation continued in all three places after 1776, and although compromises were struck in Britain and America through the rise of parliamentary sovereignty and republican constitutionalism respectively, in Jamaica the principles and practices of representation therefore continued to be contested. More broadly, this suggests that such tensions are immanent and unavoidable in any parliamentary system, and can only be balanced rather than fully reconciled.

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