The insight that ‘the people’ is not only represented by parliament has greatly affected theorising on democratic legitimacy. Increasingly, non-electoral forms of representation are conceived as the manifestation of a ‘negative sovereign’ (Rosanvallon 2006). This view at once challenges the stability of sovereign power and its transferability to the state – as presumed within social contract theory. Instead, it defines the state’s legitimacy in terms of ‘power-sharing’; implying a shared creativity with those represented.
This paper reveals the tenacity of the social contract in political practice. Drawing from 70 in-depth interviews with members of the Flemish regional parliament, it demonstrates that distrust is not citizens’ prerogative. Confronted with an ‘intangible sovereign’, MPs turn to themselves to define their course of action. They legitimate their autonomy by invoking the ‘social contract’ as embodied by elections; attributing ‘the people’ the role of an audience which legitimately manifests itself only at the ballot.
