📕 WP1 Report (D1.3) – Analysing the Representative Disconnect | Exeter, United Kingdom | November 24, 2024 🇬🇧

The REDIRECT project presents Report D1.3, a continuation of Work Package 1 (WP1), dedicated to examining the phenomenon of the “representative disconnect.” Building on D1.1 (a general account of representative democracy) and D1.2 (the ecology of representation), this report provides the first analytical exploration of the causes, dimensions, and implications of democratic disconnection.

The analysis reveals that the disconnect is not a single problem but a complex interplay of processes and transformations, shaped by social, cultural, institutional, and ideational factors.

🔑 Three Dimensions of the Representative Disconnect:

  • Intermediation Disconnect → weakening ties between citizens and representatives through parties, electoral systems, and political communication

  • Governance & Accountability Disconnect → shifting decision-making away from representative institutions, reducing democratic oversight

  • Affective Disconnect → growing mistrust, detachment, and contested identities among citizens and elites

⚖️ While these dimensions are analytically distinct, they overlap and reinforce one another, producing a multidimensional challenge to democratic legitimacy and citizen–elite linkages.

🚧 As a work-in-progress, the report is both diagnostic and exploratory: it clarifies conceptual foundations while recognising the need for empirical inquiry and strategies of reconnection and redirection.

📍 Location: University of Exeter, United Kingdom

📅 Date: November 24, 2024

🤝 Partner: University of Exeter (UNEXE)

#AnalyticalFramework #RepresentativeEcology #RepresentativeDemocracy #RepresentativeDisconnect #DemocraticRepresentation