Representative Roles and the Phenomenon of Populism: Fresh Insights from the Parliamentary Benches

Scientists worldwide are rightly placing increasing emphasis on the study of non-electoral forms of representation. However, the issue of parliamentary representation based on electoral relationships remains important and should not be overlooked. While a parliamentary mandate remains one of the few constants in the dynamic world of politics, what can change is how it is perceived by members of parliament, as well as the relationship of representatives to society or parties. Anticipated representation changes align with party system transformations triggered by the global economic crisis, that occurred in the late 2000s (Hino, 2012; Van Biezen and Wallace; 2013; Verzichelli and Cotta, 2014; Kriesi and Pappas, 2015; De Giorgi and Moury, 2015; Stavrakakis, 2018; Casal Bértoa and Weber, 2018, Rama and Casal Bértoa, 2020; Caamaño and Casal Bértoa, 2020). Scholars from the Netherlands (Andeweg, 2017) and Hungary (Ilonszki, 2017) have already highlighted how changes in party systems, parliamentary newcomers, and representatives of populist parties reinforce the universalistic concept of representative roles, represented by the trustee model. This contribution builds upon these findings, focusing on the Czech Republic, which provides an almost laboratory-like environment. In the Czech Republic, there was a significant reconfiguration of the party system between 2010 and 2021, accompanied by a low rate of re-election for representatives. Furthermore, from 2017 to 2021, exactly 50% of the members of the Chamber of Deputies were from populist parties, with most of them participating in the government. After 2021, the opposition exclusively comprised populist groups. Valuable insights into members of parliamentary chambers are provided by research on parliamentary representatives. These have been conducted since the republic's inception in 1993. However, a disruption in the tradition of these studies occurred in 2007 (before the onset of the economic crisis and the rise of populism). The restoration of the tradition of regular research on parliamentary representation took place in the pandemic year of 2020 (conducted online) and in the years 2023 and 2024, with the highest response rate to date (91.5%). This contribution aims to determine whether it is possible to identify something akin to a populist perception of a mandate. The focus will primarily be on the perception of the parliamentary mandate from the perspective of representatives of populist parties, compared to representatives of other parliamentary parties (established and new). This contribution also provides a longitudinal comparison of the perception of representative roles and identifies the main drivers of representation transformation.