While the field of research on citizens' political preferences has largely developed, the relationship of
elected officials to democracy has not been finely conceptualized enough (Petit et al., 2022). If the
reluctance of political elites towards the inclusion of citizens in the decision process seems
demonstrated, “the reasons behind” this attitude remain largely unexplored (Koskimaa et al., 2023,
p. 5). This paper tests the hypothesis of socialization to representation as a maker of distrust through
a mixed methods investigation on local elected officials in France and Italy. The quantitative
exploitation of data from an original survey on around 1500 representative confirms that the position
of power but also the experience of elected officials predicts their opposition to democratic
innovations. The qualitative treatment of 92 face-to-face interviews then provides the information
necessary to understand how entering the function of representation transforms their vision of
citizens and politicians and fosters their support of the political status quo.