Anti-Parliamentary Discourses and the Renewal of Political Representation: How the Laws for Democratic Regeneration are Changing the Style of Parliamentary Politics in Spain…(or Not)

The diagnosis of the present political crisis as a crisis of representation, has contributed to a weakening of Parliaments in a context of an unstoppable presidentialization of democracies (Rosanvallon, 2015). Although Parliaments cannot claim the exclusiveness of citizen’s representation, they have suffered the consequences of a general assumption of political parties´ representative role decline (Mair, 2005). Within this context, a widespread strategy for the new political forces has been to assume the populist discourse of the political class or caste, embodied in traditional parties, and to present themselves as instruments to facilitate the direct presence of citizens within the institutions. Once inside collective assemblies, they have challenged traditional procedures and forms of debate, trying to promote what can be considered an “expressive form of politics”, envisioning assemblies as a theater carefully scrutinized by the media and social networks. At the same time, they have forced the adoption of specific laws for democratic regeneration that modifies their internal regulations. The paper tries to reflect on the impact of these strategies and reforms through the analysis of the recent experience of collective assemblies in different levels (Spanish Parliament, assemblies of Autonomous Communities and City Councils), trying to identify common trends and impacts. They share a critique of the "limited representative nature" of parliaments, proposing instead strategies for guaranteeing the real presence of citizens. And this discourse has being incorporated in new laws for transparency and citizen participation in the assemblies (which include proposals as the seat for "the citizen" in the Parliament of Andalucía) among other regulations. The question to be addressed is the way these anti-parliamentary discourses are changing the parliamentary style of politics. Widely adopted by the Spanish democratic institutions during the transition to democracy, the parliamentary concepts and practices are now under scrutiny. And the key point is to analyze if they nevertheless are enduring and able to channel the new institutional political conflicts.