UNelected REPresentatives: The Impact on Liberal Democracy in Europe (UNREP)

Basic data for this project

Type of project: Individual project
Duration: 01/01/2020 - 30/09/2023

Description

Martin Sellner, leader of the Identitarian Movement of Austria, says he represents "Generation identity […] a group of young patriots fed up with the system, the mainstream press and lying politicians”. Greta Thunberg claims to speak on behalf of future generations. There are many individuals who claim to represent people. Why do they do that? How often are such claims made? Do people feel themselves represented by these individuals? What does that all mean for the legitimacy of liberal democracy in Europe? UNelected REPresentatives: The Impact on Liberal Democracy in Europe (UNREP) sets out to answer these questions. This takes place against a background of crisis of liberal democracy in Europe. Many people do not feel represented by elected politicians. They turn to populists like Marine Le Pen or autocrats like Victor Orban. Democracy appears in need of some underway replenishment. There is a lot of research on populists, populist parties and peoples' opinion about democracy and trust in politics. Yet, so far, the role of unelected representatives in all this has been largely overlooked. UNREP therefore plans to ‘unwrap’ the mysteries of representation in a globalized world through unelected individuals. UNREP departs from a new development in political theory, which considers representation not as the result of elections but as interaction between those who claim to represent others and the audience that either approves or rejects such claims. The project is funded by The Norwegian Research Council's FRIHUMSAM programme. It is led by Professor Pieter de Wilde (NTNU Trondheim). Professor Oliver Treib (WWU) is an external partner in the project. His main contribution is the design, organization and analysis of surveys in two countries, which seek to measure citizen reactions to the claims of unelected representatives.

Keywords: Political Science; Representation; Democracy