Visions of Representation

In this conversation, Alice Moseley and Lise Herman (University of Exeter) examine how citizens’ assemblies can help reconnect citizens with representative democracy. Drawing on REDIRECT research into climate assemblies in France and the United Kingdom, including media analysis and almost 40 interviews, they explore how deliberation within these institutions connects with wider public debate. They...

In this conversation, Zsófia Papp (ELTE Centre for Social Sciences) explores how citizens judge whether legislators are responsive—and which forms of responsiveness they value most. Drawing on a conjoint experiment conducted in five European countries, she identifies a consistent pattern of asymmetric accountability: voters penalise poor performance more heavily than they reward exceptional perfor...

In this conversation, Paolo Marzi (University of Siena) revisits one of the central dilemmas of democratic representation: should politicians follow citizens’ preferences or exercise their own judgement? Drawing on mass and elite surveys conducted across eight European countries, he finds that citizens are divided between these two ideals, while politicians generally favour greater autonomy. Inter...

In this conversation, Thomas Poguntke (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) examines how political parties have become increasingly disconnected from the societies they represent. He traces how many established parties have lost members and weakened their social roots while growing more dependent on state resources and public office. Although this transformation supports professional political ca...

In this conversation, Marta Smagacz-Poziemska (Jagiellonian University) explores how young people understand democracy through their everyday lives. Drawing on REDIRECT focus groups in Kraków and Brussels, she finds a strong commitment to democratic values, including human rights and freedom of expression, alongside deep frustration with how democracy works in practice. Participants in Brussels sp...

In this conversation, Magdalena Góra (Jagiellonian University) discusses how political actors debate democracy in the European Union. Based on an analysis of European Parliament debates following the Conference on the Future of Europe and proposals for a European Democracy Shield, she identifies two central disagreements: whether democracy should remain anchored mainly at the national level, and h...

In this conversation, Luca Verzichelli (University of Siena) discusses findings from the REDIRECT surveys of citizens and political elites. Political representatives are generally more supportive of democratic institutions and less sympathetic to authoritarian or populist positions than the public, yet they often struggle to communicate the value of representation. Verzichelli describes this as ev...

In this conversation, Katarzyna Zielińska (Jagiellonian University) discusses the role of civil society organisations in responding to dissatisfaction with representative democracy. Drawing on REDIRECT research in Poland, Norway, Italy and at the European Union level, the conversation examines how organisations engage citizens, connect underrepresented groups with political elites, and hold decisi...

In this conversation, John Erik Fossum (University of Oslo) discusses how European integration is changing representative democracy. He presents the European Union as an experiment in democratic governing in which representation is being rescaled rather than simply transferred from the national to the European level. The European Parliament and national representative institutions reshape one anot...

In this conversation, Elodie Thevenin (Jagiellonian University) asks whether young politicians represent younger citizens when they enter parliament. Drawing on REDIRECT research into speeches by young MPs in seven European countries and the European Parliament, she finds that they rarely claim explicitly to speak on behalf of young people. Yet age still enters their parliamentary work through ref...

In this conversation, Eline Severs (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) explores how young people experience representative democracy. Drawing on REDIRECT focus groups with adolescents in Belgium and Poland and interviews with young politicians across eight European countries, she reveals a generation that continues to believe in democratic ideals while remaining deeply dissatisfied with democracy as it i...

In this interview, recorded online on 29 February 2024, Professor Alfio Mastropaolo discusses the chapter on “Representation and the Invention of Modern Politics” from his book  Waging War by Other Means: Historical Sociology of Democratic Government .

In this interview, recorded at the Bourse in Brussels on 6 December 2025, Prof Philippe van Parijs reflects on the role of the public intellectual within representative democracy, including his own contribution to public debates about and political campaigns for an unconditional basic income. Visions of Representation is a series of interviews with scholars in democratic theory recorded by Andrew...

In this interview, recorded at Friends’ House in London on 24 October 2025, Prof Michael Saward (Warwick) discusses his article ’Shape-Shifting Representation.’ American Political Science Review. 2014;108(4):723-736

In this interview, recorded at the APSA annual conference in Vancouver on 12 September 2025, Prof Simone Chambers (UC Irvine) discusses her article ‘ Deliberative Democracy and the Digital Public Sphere: Asymmetrical Fragmentation as a Political not a Technological Problem ,’ Constellations 30(1) 2023: 61-68. She explains how the fragmentation and privatization of public life, which poses a challe...

In this interview, recorded at the APSA annual conference in Vancouver on 11 September 2025, Prof Nadia Urbinati (Columbia University) discusses her article, ‘ The decline and the need of the key force of intermediation ,’ Philosophy and Social Criticism 51(4) 2025: 559-570. She explains how it is not only the decline of parties as intermediary political bodies that contributes to the democratic d...

In this interview, recorded at the University of Exeter on 19 May 2025, Prof Mark Warren (British Columbia) discusses his co-authored paper (with Şule Yaylaci & Eden Beuavais), ‘When, Where and Why Might Elected Political Elites Reach for Democratic Innovations’. He explains the potential incentives for elected officials to adopt democratic innovations (such as deliberative mini-publics or par...

In this interview, recorded in London on 19 March 2025, Emeritus Professor Anne Phillips discusses her contribution ‘ Descriptive Representation Revisited ’ to Rohrschneider & Thomassen (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation . OUP 2020: 174-191. She explains the key reasons why descriptive representation matters and addresses three perennial concerns: worries about essentialism;...

In this interview, recorded during the BIAPT annual conference at the University of York on 10 January 2025, Prof Monica Brito Vieira (York) discusses her article, ‘Representing Silence in Politics ,’ American Political Science Review 2020 114(4): 976-988.Against the tendency to understand silence as the absence of voice, she argues that silence is best understood as the site of a potential or act...

In this interview, recorded during the ECPR annual conference at University College Dublin on 13 August 2024, Prof Suzanne Dovi (Arizona) discusses her article, ‘ What’s Missing: A Typology of Political Absence ,’ The Journal of Politics 2020 82(2): 559-571. She explains how understanding and properly evaluating representation requires attending not only to how representation makes groups present...

In this interview, recorded in Falmouth on 29 May 2024, Prof Mihaela Mihai (Edinburgh) discusses her article, ‘ Foundational Moments, Representative Claims and the Ecology of Social Ignorance ’ Political Studies 70 (4) 2021: 962-982. She explains how, especially in moments of constitutional re-founding, representation can nurture social ignorance, despite the availability of ample opportunities fo...