In politics, representation describes how political power is given from a large group for a certain time period in the hands of a comparatively small group of its members. Representation usually refers to representative democracies, where elected officials (called "representatives") nominally speak for their electors in the legislature. Generally, only citizens have representation in the government in the form of voting rights. The term representation can be used in a number of different ways. Representation can be understood in terms of how legislators represent their constituents.