On Behalf of Whom? The Multiple Representation of Europeans

Abstract

Since 2000, we can establish a “representative turn” (Bellamy and Kröger) in European Studies, and the question of the democratic deficit is presented less as an issue related to procedures of democratic participation than as a question about quality of representation. From a certain perspective, voters and politicians nowadays must confront a cacophony of attempts at representation, but, from another point of view, this plurality of “representation claims” can be understood as an opportunity to enrich democratic representation. This cacophony takes place at a time when representative democracy is in crisis, when politics is increasingly confronting the presence of powerful transnational actors and decision-making areas that escape the reach of traditional representative institutions. These three factors—plurality, novelty and the crisis of representation—are demanding a conceptual leap when it comes to understanding and designing representation.