Who Should an MP Represent? Representational Focus Preferences of “The People”

With the rise of populist politicians and parties, there has been a strong increase in research on populism. Initially, the literature focused mainly on the supply-side of populism. The last decade has seen a strong increase in research on the demand-side of populism, especially on populist attitudes, their causes and correlates, and their influence on voting behavior. There is also a growing body of research on the relationship between populism and political representation. With the establishment of the radical right-wing populist AfD in Germany and the first notable results of the new BSW in the European and East German state elections, the German party system is changing rapidly, raising questions about the representational preferences of the population. Both parties have in common that they appeal strongly to people who are dissatisfied with the other major parties, their governance, and their policies. Moreover, both parties stylize themselves as alternatives to the existing parties, claiming to stand for people who are no longer understood and represented by the other parties. But how do “the people” want to be represented? An important part of political representation are representational role conceptions and, specifically, representational focus preferences: Who should an MP represent and on whom should they focus on? Should they focus on all citizens, on their voters, on a particular group, or on a geographic entity? While there are some studies on the representational focus preferences of MPs themselves, there is a very central aspect that has received little attention in the literature: the representational focus preferences of the citizens and especially of those with populist attitudes. This paper addresses this research gap. Building on the ideational approach to populism and using data from the GLES Cross-Section 2021 the following questions are examined: According to the citizens, which representational focus conception should a MP have? And to what extent do populist attitudes influence citizens’ representational focus preferences?