From theories of political representation (Pitkin; Mansbridge), we know that representation can take many different forms that in many ways transcend the simple principal-agent model of representation. This paper develops the claim that representation acquires an additional dimension in a multilevel polity like the European Union. Specifically, the argument is developed that a multilevel polity can only live up to the democratic ideal if political representatives transcend their national constituencies and come to see themselves as vehicles for internalising foreign concerns in the national political debate.
A multilevel polity, like the EU, is marked by the fact that political decision-making has become deeply interdependent while processes of political identification and collective will-formation remain concentrated at the national level. In such a context, political representatives operate increasingly as diplomats who shuttle between different arenas, like the national government and the Council of Ministers or the national parliament and the European Parliament (or the parliament of another EU member state). In the absence of an overarching demos, it falls upon these representatives to convey the interests and preoccupations of other (national) constituencies to their own (cf. Savage & Weale 2009). Obviously, in the short-run representatives may be inclined to take all credit for whatever gains they secure for their own constituency and to blame everything else on the others as external constraints. However, in a permanently multilevel polity this is not a sustainable strategy and eventually goes to undermine its democratic credibility.
Combining theories of democratic representation with conceptualisations of the multilevel character of the EU, this paper thus outlines a distinct conception of democratic representation in the EU. It goes on to develop the implications of such an understanding for three different representative positions in the EU: national ministers, members of national parliaments, and members of the European Parliament.
