Political representation in Europe
Etablissement : ESPOL European School of Political and Social Sciences
Langue : Anglais
Formation(s) dans laquelle/lesquelles le cours apparait :
Période : S1
Is democracy in Europe declining? Are political parties still representing citizens’ preferences? Do governments still have the freedom to meet the demands of their voters? This course will investigate these and related questions.
The course focuses on how contemporary changes in the global economy or in the post-industrial society may (or may not) affect the functioning of our democracies. As we will discuss during the first sessions, the main characteristic of democracy-as-we-know is that large groups of citizens are represented in decision-making institutions. The main pedagogical objective of this course is to develop students’ critical thinking about what representation is and how it manifests: when are political leaders representative of their constituencies and when are they not; how can we assess whether they are?
After a brief introduction about how political science contributes to the public debates about democracy, the course starts by characterizing western governments as ‘representative’ and identifying political parties as the actors responsible for a successful combination of representation and government, and thus as the actors that are determinant for the proper functioning of our democracies. The course then proceeds with the presentation of the current challenges faced by parties and how these challenges may in turn affect the functioning of democracy. The focus of the course is on the process linking citizens’ preferences to public policy, and how this is challenged by ongoing societal and economic developments. Some examples of studies that attempted or claimed to test the democratic linkage are presented, together with their merits and shortcomings.
The course will be evaluated as follows: 25% assignment for session 5; 25% assignment for session 9; 50% final essay (see details at the bottom). In-class attendance is mandatory and active participation is expected. Students are expected to know the contents of the readings assigned for each class.
Session 1- A crisis of democracy?
Mair, P. (2011) ‘Bini Smaghi vs. the parties: representative government and institutional constraints’, EUI RSCAS; 2011/22; EUDO – European Union Democracy Observatory.
Kriesi, H. Is There a Crisis of Democracy in Europe?. Polit Vierteljahresschr 61, 237–260 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11615-020-00231-9
Session 2- Democracy as a representative linkage
Dalton, R.J., Farrell D.M. and I. McAllister (2011) Political Parties and the Democratic Linkage. How parties organize democracy, New York: Oxford University Press: 3-28, 215-234 (Chapters 1 and 9).
Powell Jr, G. B. (2004). The quality of democracy: The chain of responsiveness. Journal of Democracy, 15(4), 91-105.
Session 3- What is “representation”?
Enroth, H. (2017). Cartelization versus representation? On a misconception in contemporary party theory. Party Politics, 23(2), 124-134.
Urbinati, N., & Warren, M. E. (2008). The concept of representation in contemporary democratic theory. Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci., 11(1), 387-412.
Session 4- Different modes of representation
Saward, M. (2008). Making representations: modes and strategies of political parties. European Review, 16(3), 271-286.
Thomassen, J. & C. van Ham (2014) ‘Failing Political Representation or a Change in Kind? Models of Representation and Empirical Trends in Europe’, West European Politics, 37(2): 400-419.
Session 5- In-class discussion: Categorizing different modes of representation
Reading: Saward, M. (2006). The representative claim. Contemporary political theory, 5, 297-318.
Assignment: Pick a political party that competed in a recent European national election and write 1200-word commentary about its mode/strategy of representation
Session 6- Partisan de-alignment… ?
Van Biezen, I., Mair, P., & Poguntke, T. (2012). Going, going,… gone? The decline of party membership in contemporary Europe. European journal of political research, 51(1), 24-56.
Garzia, D., Ferreira da Silva, F., & De Angelis, A. (2022). Partisan dealignment and the personalisation of politics in West European parliamentary democracies, 1961–2018. West European Politics, 45(2), 311-334.
Session 7- …. Or realignment?
Gingrich, J., & Häusermann, S. (2015). The decline of the working-class vote, the reconfiguration of the welfare support coalition and consequences for the welfare state. Journal of European Social Policy, 25(1), 50-75.
Damhuis, K., & Karremans, J. (2017). Responsive to whom? A comparison of the Mitterrand and Hollande presidencies. West European Politics, 40(6), 1267-1287.
Session 8- Polarization in western politics
Reiljan, A. (2020). ‘Fear and loathing across party lines’(also) in Europe: Affective polarisation in European party systems. European journal of political research, 59(2), 376-396.
Casal Bértoa, F., & Rama, J. (2021). Polarization: what do we know and what can we do about it?. Frontiers in Political Science, 3, 687695.
Session 9- In-class discussion: de/realignment and polarization in Europe today
Assignment: Write a 800-word commentary on how one of the most recent national electoral campaigns in Europe reflect (or not) one (or more) of the long-term developments discussed in the last three classes (de-alignment, re-alignment, polarization)
Session 10- Challenges to representation in the 21st century
Elsässer, L., & Schäfer, A. (2023). Political inequality in rich democracies. Annual Review of Political Science, 26(1), 469-487.
Mudde, C. (2021). Populism in Europe: an illiberal democratic response to undemocratic lib
