The Representative Disconnect in Contemporary European Democracies

Today’s representative democracies appear increasingly squeezed between a growing indifference towards politics, and a mode of politics that has become more personalised, volatile, polarized, and confrontational: an arena in which citizens take part more as spectators than as agents. The notion that political representatives’ work consists, at least in part, of mediation and compromise-seeking has become suspect and increasingly gives way to accusations of elitism, a lack of responsiveness, and incompetence. Populist appeals redefine political representation by invoking the immediacy of a putative will of the people or a leader’s charisma. Meanwhile, technocrat arguments contribute to broader trends of depoliticization that erode support for (time-consuming) forms of collective deliberation and judgment formation.

This thematic issue is organized and conducted under the aegis of the Horizon Europe project REDIRECT. It promotes a holistic understanding of the malaise of contemporary European democracies, defined as a “representative disconnect.” It treats this disconnect as an expression of broader and long-standing cultural and social transformations (e.g., individualism, globalization, neoliberalism, social media, and the rise of the far right) that have profoundly altered the “zone of engagement” in which citizens and politics meet. We treat representative disconnect as a multidimensional phenomenon (with institutional, behavioural, and affective components). To discern its nature, magnitude, and implications, the thematic issue presents a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods along with conceptual and comparative analyses that research both the representative and citizen end of the disconnect. Besides a focus on political parties as key actors and platforms for representation, with particular emphasis on unpacking the experiences and perspectives of youth (MP and citizens) in today’s climate of fear, anxiety, and polarisation. Contributions present findings from elite and mass surveys, youth focus groups, representative claim analysis, and conceptual work on disconnect, political parties, and deliberative mini-publics.