(New) Political Representative Claims: A Global View (France, Germany, Brazil, China, India)

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Brigitte Geißel; Professor Dr. Thomas Heberer
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2016 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 281458206

• Final Report Year: 2021

Final Report Abstract

Representation is at the core of the contemporary reconfiguration of the political landscape. The CLAIMS-project sought to conceptually refine (claims of) representation by theoretically and empirically reassessing what representation is and what it does in Western and non-Western contexts. CLAIMS identifies the limits and gaps in the existing literature and the benefits of theory-driven empirical research to overcome these limitations. CLAIMS provided crucial conceptual impulses and empirical insights about (claims of) representation in a global perspective. The CLAIMS team focused on how different political actors (political parties, civil society, individual citizens) within different institutional settings (representative, participative and deliberative bodies), contexts (democratic, authoritarian), and legacies, across countries and levels of governance, claim (and perform) representation. Finally, CLAIMS provides conceptual tools and frameworks for the (comparative) study of claims of representation. The traditional theory of democratic representation centers on the linkage between democracy and representation. It answers the question of what makes representation democratic, with two interlinked concepts – authorization and accountability. At the heart of democratic representation are elections – they are both an authorization mechanism and providing accountability. Recent theories of representation broadened the scope of representation and shifted attention from the formal procedure of election to the expressive and performative dimension of representation. At the core of their efforts is the way in which the fractured relationship between the representatives and the represented in contemporary democracies can be repaired. Broadening the scope of representation beyond electoral authorization opened up conceptual and empirical challenges. In the course of the CLAIMS project, the Frankfurt team has significantly contributed to resolving the existing conceptual gaps and proposed ways in which empirical challenges can be resolved iteratively and comparatively. Most importantly, the typology developed by Guasti and Geissel (2019) proposed a way to connect constructivist democratic theory and empirical research – a novel way to study representation as claim-making. Summing up, the Frankfurt research team significantly contributed to the CLAIMS project - utilizing the fieldwork in Germany for iterative conceptual advancement of the theory of representation. Our major contribution is two-fold: a typology of representative claims and conceptualization of authorization beyond elections. This enables the scholars of representation to broaden the scope of representation and explore the contemporary reconfiguration of the political landscape.

Publications

• (2018). Democracy in Crisis? The Czech Republic in Post-Accession and Economic Turmoil. In Guasti, P., Mansfeldova, Z. (2018). Democracy under Stress: Changing Perspectives on Democracy, Governance, and Their Measurement. Praha: ISASCR, pp. 71- 94
  Guasti, Petra, Mansfeldova, Zdenka
  
• (2018). Good Democracies Need “Good” Citizens: Citizen Dispositions and the Study of Democratic Quality. In Guasti, P., Mansfeldova, Z. (2018). Democracy under Stress: Changing Perspectives on Democracy, Governance, and Their Measurement. Praha: ISASCR, pp. 141-160
  Mayne, Quinton, & Geissel, Brigitte
  
• An Alternative to Representation: Explaining Preferences for Citizens as Political Decision-Makers, Political Studies Review 2018, 17(3): 224–238
  Geissel, Brigitte, Gherghina, S.
  
• Democracy under Stress: Changing Perspectives on Democracy, Governance and Their Measurement. 2018 Prague: ISASCR
  Guasti, Petra, Mansfeldova, Z.
  
• Participatory developments in majoritarian and consensus democracies, Representation 2018, 54 (2): 129–146
  Geissel, Brigitte, Michels, A
  
• (2019). A new approach to map and quantify representative claims and measure their validation: A case study analysis. Politics and Governance, 7(3), 137- 151, 2019
  Joschko, Viola, & Glaser, Luis
  
• (2019). Rethinking Representation: Representative Claims in Global Perspective. Politics and Governance, 7(3): 93-97
  Guasti, Petra, Geißel, Brigitte
  
• Claims of misrepresentation: A comparison of Germany and Brazil. Politics and Governance, 2019, 7(3), 152-164
  Guasti, Petra, Almeida, Debora
  
• Saward’s Concept of the Representative Claim Revisited – An Empirical Perspective. Politics and Governance, 2019 7(3), 98-111
  Guasti, Petra, Geißel, Brigitte
  
• “Combining Participation and Representation Meaningfully? Democratic Innovations in Europe”, in Oliver Escobar/Stephen Elstub (eds.), Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance, Edward Elgar Publisher, 2019
  Geissel, Brigitte
  
• „Partizipative Demokratietheorie und Kritik“, in Gisela Riescher, Beate Rosenzweig, Anna Meine (Hg.): Einführung in die Politische Theorie. Grundlagen – Methoden – Debatten, W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 2019
  Geissel, Brigitte
  
• (2020). The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Central and Eastern Europe: The Rise of Autocracy and Democratic Resilience. Democratic Theory, 7(2), 47-60
  Guasti, Petra
  
• (2020). “Populism.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science. Ed. Sandy Maisel. New York: Oxford University Press
  Bustikova, Lenka, Guasti, Petra