Citizens and Representative Democracy: A Conflictive Relationship? Analysing Political Disaffection in Spain

In recent years there has been a steady alienation of citizens from representative institutions, criticizing, among other things, representatives' lack of competence. From the perspective of the theory of representation (Pitkin, 1967), this is due to a distorted perception of representation by the citizens (Mansbridge, 2003). Following this argument, some authors claim that people just want to replace liberal democracy with direct democracy or imperative mandate (Manin, 1997; Sartori, 2005). Other authors explain the criticism of the representative system in terms of political disaffection (Torcal and Montero , 2006): citizens do not question the representative system, but the actors involved in it. Thus, rather than an expert government, citizens would demand more political competence. This paper will focus on political disaffection and its relationship with liberal democracy. Using the Spanish case of study, the authors will try to demonstrate that such a political attitude doesn't affect the stability of the democratic regime. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be used to accomplish with the objectives of this research. Data will be taken from European Social Survey. Furthermore, 7 focus groups (realized in Spain in 2011) will be analyzed. First of all, authors will show that political disaffection has no impact on the importance that citizens give to the basic principles of liberal democracy. Secondly, analyzing citizens' perceptions about political representation, authors will demonstrate that citizens don't want direct democracy or imperative mandate. On the contrary, all the modifications they want to introduce in the political system fit with normative democratic theory. Results will be analyzed and discussed using the frame of Bobbio's democratization theory (1984).