Shape-Shifting Representation in the European Union: A Theoretical Framework

The unprecedented levels of political interdependence that have been created in the European Union challenge the geographical boundaries between electoral constituencies and the role conceptions that politicians can hold. In the complex polity of the EU, it is often not self-evident for politicians which constituency they serve, at which level it is best defined (European, national, or even local), whether it is restricted by a well-defined party-ideological mandate, or whether they should serve particular social or demographic interests. In fact, political representation in the EU may well turn around the ability to mediate between the wishes from one’s formal constituency and those of other constituencies. Thus, the EU may invite – or even require – politicians to engage in (what Michael Saward (2014) has called) ‘shape-shifting representation’, i.e. to sometimes appeal national interests, sometimes to European interests, and sometimes, for instance, to party-ideological interests. This paper outlines a theoretical framework for examining shape-shifting representation in the EU. It builds on Saward’s approach and on constructivist theories of political representation more generally to outline a position of a) why a complex polity like the EU may invite shape-shifting representation, b) to what extent shape-shifting representation can help to match political representation to the relevant affected interests by transcending formal jurisdictional boundaries, and c) what conditions and controls are required for it to serve EU democracy as a whole. On that normative basis, the paper then draws upon the already available literature on different representative role conceptions in EU institutions (like the European Parliament (Hix 2002), the European Commission (Thomson and Dumont 2022), and the Council and the European Council (Fossum 2014)) to develop hypotheses about the different kinds of shape-shifting representation and the kinds of actors and conditions for which they are most likely to be encountered.