Demanding and Constructing the Good/bad Representative: Insights from Letters and Emails to French MPs

Do citizens unintentionally produce the “bad” representatives they later condemn? Drawing on 1,500 letters and emails sent to three French députés between 2022 and 2025 and 30 interviews with MPs, this presentation reveals a paradox: citizens simultaneously construct and condemn their representatives through written correspondence. Following constructivist approaches to representation (Saward, 2006, 2010), we argue that letters are not merely expressions of preferences but performative acts: the represented who experience the relation can make and unmake good and bad representatives. This occurs through three interconnected mechanisms. Citizens’ representative preferences and their effects on agency Relying on works about citizens’ perspectives on representation (Bengtsson and Wass, 2011) and a subcorpus of correspondence expressing the citizens’ act of voting to their representatives, we identify three forms of speech: strategic, associated with a “consumer” conception of representation; deliberative, corresponding to horizontal engagement; and faithful, reflecting trust in autonomous judgment. Strategic and deliberative speeches predominate, suggesting citizens seek an inclusive kind of representation. Our analysis also reveals that expressions of identification and descriptive representation (Pitkin, 1972) are evident, as in: “Dear MP and esteemed colleague, […] I have no hope left but in you” (a teacher writing to a school director MP). This presentation will also compare the corpus depending on the gender and professions of the MPs studied (two men teachers, a woman engineer) and show that the closer a citizen is, sociologically, to a representative, the less necessary it becomes to use costly self-presentation tools for asserting written claims. Proximity as a career trap Data highlight significant local and socio-economic asymmetries. MPs from less advantaged constituencies face expectations beyond formal competencies (e.g., housing). These pressures create tensions between formal authority and practical capacity: MPs representing disadvantaged constituencies might have difficulties satisfying these demands and thereby building a political base for reelection. The expectation of proximity constrains political careers (Neveu, 2019): MPs closer to the ground face greater difficulties accessing central power positions. Socially less privileged elected officials may thus be marginalized. Immunisation through grievance saturation Following Hayat (2019), we examine how MPs respond to messages challenging their representative claims. Repeated exposure (increased by social media) seems to generate immunisation effects: MPs and their staff develop cynicism and detachment from demands. This finding opens a discussion on citizens’ responsibilities and the paradox identified by Ollion (2021): citizens demand ordinary representatives while expecting professional behavior. It also questions the nature and relevance of MPs’ means and trainings. Can MPs truly represent and provide autonomy (Dovi, 2018) if they face constant criticism, lack training, and leave politics? This presentation challenges the conventional allocation of blame in representative failures. We demonstrate a shared blameworthiness: the inability of representatives to fully represent stems from MPs, citizens’ expectations, and institutional constraints. The French case helps understand representation as co-produced and provides new analytical and normative tools for democracies trying to reconcile inclusive representation with institutional norms.