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Friday 17:40 - 19:20 BST (05/09/2014)
Since the 1990s, there has been a renewed and growing interest in the concept of political representation. Key to this renewed interest is an enhanced understanding of the performative and constitutive character of representation. Building from the notion that political reality is not objectively given but requires interpretation, political representation is increasingly conceived as originating within the formulation of representative claims – i.e. claims that define and attribute meaning to those represented and their interests (cf. Saward 2006; 2010). Today’s so-called ‘constructivist turn’ in political representation (cf. Disch 2011) builds, to an important extent, from empirical findings on the endogeneity of preferences (cf. Kuklinski and Segura 1995; Page and Shapiro 2000). The realisation that people’s interests only acquire meaning through social interaction allowed to conceive of political representation as instrumental to forming ‘democratic constituents’ – mobilising them and imputing a sense of unity on them. This conception also broadened the scope of representation studies – drawing attention to non-electoral forms and styles of representation (cf. Street 2004; Strolovitch 2006) –, and stimulated critical reflection on the standards of democratic representation. The understanding that representation is not the prerogative of elected representatives revealed, firstly, the limits of universal franchise (‘one citizen, one vote’) as a measure of democratic inclusion (cf. Warren and Castiglione 2004; Rubenstein 2007; Urbinati and Warren 2008). The strategic-heuristic context of preference formation casted, secondly, suspicion on preference satisfaction as a benchmark of democratic representation (cf. Runciman 2007; Severs 2010; Disch 2011). Drawing from contemporary innovations in representation theory, this panel aims to further stimulate critical exchanges between theoretical and empirical scholars. It welcomes paper contributions that theorise on political representation and its relation to democracy, address analytic concerns related to the measurement of (democratic) representation, or integrate empirical findings in a reflection on contemporary representation theory.
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Democratic Representation and the Constituency Paradox | View Paper Details |
Back to the Future? Political Representation in the Online Age: Reflections on the 5Star Movement in Italy | View Paper Details |
Is Parliament's Increased Focus on Public Engagement Changing the Nature of Parliamentary Representation? | View Paper Details |
Transnational Populism: Representing 'The People' beyond the Nation-State | View Paper Details |
The Tenacity of the Social Contract: Flemish MPs' Self-Legitimation in an Age of Distrust | View Paper Details |