Ethnic Constraints, Environmental Opportunities: Constructing Representation in Divided Societies

This paper examines how environmental representation in divided societies both reflects and challenges representative politics. Focusing on Bosnia and Herzegovina and Northern Ireland, where institutionalized power-sharing reinforces ethnonational cleavages, the study explores how the interplay between representatives and citizens transcends traditional boundaries of political engagement. By employing a constructivist approach, the research investigates how representation is actively constructed, contested, and negotiated in spaces where formal democratic processes often appear constrained or disfigured. The paper identifies four critical dynamics in environmental representation that reflect broader transformations in representative democracy. First, environmental issues serve as a site of resistance against ethnically "tainted" representation, with citizens rejecting formal processes they view as exclusionary. Second, the constructivist turn reveals how citizens and representatives co-construct alternative forms of representation, particularly around cross-segmental environmental interests. Third, these dynamics underscore the need to rethink representation as a process of mutual construction rather than mere inclusion, reconstructing political legitimacy in the face of systemic disfigurements.The fourth central finding is the dysfunction of the representative loop. In these contexts, representatives are not necessarily dependent on their audiences’ feedback due to institutional structures that prioritize ethnonational identities over broader accountability. Likewise, citizens often disengage, perceiving electoral representation as failing or irrelevant, particularly in policy areas like environmentalism that transcend traditional ethnic divisions, and looking for informal alternatives This approach reveals how alternative forms of representation—particularly those arising around cross-segmental interests like environmentalism—challenge institutional constraints and create new spaces for political engagement. By focusing on the performative and relational aspects of representation, constructivism provides critical insights into how representation can evolve in response to the disfigurements of contemporary democratic systems. Ultimately, the research demonstrates that constructivist perspectives are vital for rethinking the representative process in deeply-divided societies, offering a pathway to more responsive and inclusive democratic systems.