Compounded Representation or Conceptual Change?

Political representation belongs to the key concepts of modern liberal democracy and yet, at the same time, it belongs to the fuzziest concepts whose virtue seems to lie in its wide applicability. A fact which is supported by the almost endless list of adjectives allegedly used to specify the concept: from virtual to traditional (Burke 1744), from appropriated to descriptive (Weber 1956), from gyroscopic to surrogate (Mansbridge 2003), from electoral (Birch 1971) to constitutional (Sieyès 1789), to name but a few. The concept’s essential contestability, and the short 20th century’s obsession with representation as the mere translation from votes into seats have contributed to the modest theoretical developments in representative theory. The increasing importance of trans- and supranational actors and arenas, the advance of executive and bureaucratic politics (i.e. decision-making via non-majoritarian institutions), and the disillusion with ‘actually existing’ democracy contribute to a representative turn. A characteristic of this turn is that it is no longer who speaks for whom, and by what authority. Saward’s approach of the representative claims is the logical conclusion: it is the constructed audience which decides about the legitimacy of representation. This situation is fermented by the process of European integration. While the constructive component of representation could well contribute to legitimate rule, the utter lack of politics at the European level further undermines its democratic credentials. Lumping together different modes of representation – from bureaucratic representation in the Commission to functional representation in the CoR and EESC, from electoral representation in the EP to state representation in the Council – has so far not led to a democratic representative system. The paper explores whether the type of compounded representation as we find in the EU is a transitional phase heralding a major conceptual change or if it is merely executive politics in disguise?