The present essay discusses the issue of political representation through a dialog between political theory and practice. Beginning from the characterization of three forms of representation noted in the bibliography (representation as delegation, as trust and as sociological representativity) the article seeks to reveal, through the speech of house representatives and senators who participated in the debate around the institution of divorce during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, how different possibilities regarding the concept of political representation were understood and mobilized in political debate within the Brazilian Congress. The context surrounding the House of Representatives and the Federal Senate, political scenario par excellence, is multi-faceted, while parliamentary practice is constituted through the (unconscious) mixture of theoretical models, in which the need to express the importance of maintaining ties to the voter always prevails. We must not forget that politicians' discourse is, above and beyond all else, the product of the contexts to which they belong, forged by the meanings that members of parliament attribute to their function as political representatives
Political Representation; Political Theory; Political Practice; Divorce
