UNelected REPresentatives: The Impact on Liberal Democracy in Europe – Research – Department of Sociology and Political Science
UNelected REPresentatives: The Impact on Liberal Democracy in Europe (UNREP)
Paul Lovis Wagner/Sea-Watch.org, Greg Salibian/Fronteiras do Pensamento
The aim of the project
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 (7.7 Mill NOK). Project number: 287861. The project period is 2019–2023.
Relevant publications
Articles
- de Wilde, P. (2019): ‘The Quality of Representative Claims: Uncovering a Weakness in the Defense of the Liberal World Order’, Political Studies.
- de Wilde, P. (2013): “Representative claims analysis: theory meets method”, Journal of European Public Policy, 20:2, 278-294.
Blog posts
- de Wilde, P. & Rabås, K. (2020): 'Journalist Academic Partnership'. NTNU Samfunn, språk og kultur.
- de Wilde, P. (2019): ‘Good and Bad Representative Claims. How those in power are dropping the ball’. Political Studies Association.
- Berg-Tesdal, Å. (2019): ‘Folkerepresentantene vi ikke velger’. NTNU Samfunn, språk og kultur.