Representation, Congruence and Political Elites

Abstract

One of the core elements of representation in modern democracies is how the bond between the elected and the electors manifests. Of importance here is, among other things, is what voters expect, how the political system actually works, what interest are represented, how elected representatives perceive and carry out their work and whether to expect a congruence – ideological or else – between voters and elected representatives. In modern politics politicians and political parties receive mandate from voters via free and fair elections and it is debated what is the nature of this mandate. Is it a mandate to make policy according to the ‚will of voters‘ or this mandate trusted to politicians to take decisions based on a thorough deliberation and discussion. When it comes to the representational bond between voters and representatives, both descriptive and subjective representation have been considered for importance, e.g. whether there is an ideological congruence or issue congruence between the elected and the electors (subjective representation), and whether the voters and the elected should share certain characteristics such as gender, educational background or ethnicity (subjective representation). One thing is to define the bond between the represented and those who represent. Another thing is to examine and understand whether and how the nature of this bond is impacted by the political system, the characteristics of the political elite, what voters expect and what factors can alter the nature of this bond, such as personalisation of politics, increasing electoral volatility and sensational media. This panel present papers which take a critical view on how well voters are represented in terms of congruence, whether voters and representatives are alike and how elected representative perceive and carry out their representative role.