Visions of Representation is a series of interviews edited by Andrew Schaap (Director of the series) with scholars in democratic theory as part of the Horizon-funded Redirect project. In these interviews world-leading experts in democratic theory discuss their ideas about the shifting dynamics in practices of representation in contemporary political life. The interviews introduce the state of the art of contemporary academic debates about the nature of representation, including diagnoses of the disconnect between representatives and represented in Western democracies and proposals for reconnection through democratic innovations.
Episode 1. Mihaela Mihai on Representative Claim-Making and Social Ignorance
In this interview, recorded in Falmouth on 29 May 2024, Prof Mihaela Mihai (Edinburgh) discusses her article, ‘Foundational Moments, Representative Claims and the Ecology of Social Ignorance’ Political Studies 70(4) 2021: 962-982. She explains how, especially in moments of constitutional re-founding, representation can nurture social ignorance, despite the availability of ample opportunities for political contestation and alternative opinion formation.
Episode 2. Suzanne Dovi on Representation and Political Absence
In this interview, recorded during the ECPR annual conference at University College Dublin on 13 August 2024, Prof Suzanne Dovi (Arizona) discusses her article, ‘What’s Missing: A Typology of Political Absence,’ The Journal of Politics 2020 82(2): 559-571. She explains how understanding and properly evaluating representation requires attending not only to how representation makes groups present but also to how it makes groups absent.
Episode 3. Monica Brito Vieira on Representing Silence in Politics
In this interview, recorded during the BIAPT annual conference at the University of York on 10 January 2025, Prof Monica Brito Vieira (York) discusses her article, 'Representing Silence in Politics,’ American Political Science Review 2020 114(4): 976-988.
Against the tendency to understand silence as the absence of voice, she argues that silence is best understood as the site of a potential or actual presence and proposes criteria to assess the legitimacy of claims to represent silent constituencies.
Episode 4. Anne Phillips on Revisiting the Politics of Presence
In this interview, recorded in London on 19 March 2025, Emeritus Professor Anne Phillips discusses her contribution ‘Descriptive Representation Revisited’ to Rohrschneider & Thomassen (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation. OUP 2020: 174-191. She explains the key reasons why descriptive representation matters and addresses three perennial concerns: worries about essentialism; disagreements about the extent to which it implies a form of group representation; and questions about whose exclusion matters.
Episode 5. Mark Warren on Incentives for Elected Representatives to use Democratic Innovations
In this interview, recorded at the University of Exeter on 19 May 2025, Prof Mark Warren (British Columbia) discusses his co-authored paper (with Şule Yaylaci & Eden Beuavais), ‘When, Where and Why Might Elected Political Elites Reach for Democratic Innovations'. He explains the potential incentives for elected officials to adopt democratic innovations (such as deliberative mini-publics or participatory budgeting) and the conditions under which innovations might align with their interests.
Episode 6. Nadia Urbinati on The Need for Social Intermediation
In this interview, recorded at the APSA annual conference in Vancouver on 11 September 2025, Prof Nadia Urbinati (Columbia University) discusses her article, ‘The decline and the need of the key force of intermediation,’ Philosophy and Social Criticism 51(4) 2025: 559-570. She explains how it is not only the decline of parties as intermediary political bodies that contributes to the democratic disconnect: we also need to foster social intermediary bodies to make representative government more responsive to the weaker parts of society.
Episode 7. Simone Chambers on Deliberative Democracy and the Digital Public Sphere
In this interview, recorded at the APSA annual conference in Vancouver on 12 September 2025, Prof Simone Chambers (UC Irvine) discusses her article ‘Deliberative Democracy and the Digital Public Sphere: Asymmetrical Fragmentation as a Political not a Technological Problem,’ Constellations 30(1) 2023: 61-68. She explains how the fragmentation and privatization of public life, which poses a challenge for representative government, is not primarily due to the rise of social media but to authoritarian actors attacking democracy by wrecking the public sphere.
Episode 8. Michael Saward on Shape-Shifting Representation
In this interview, recorded at Friends' House in London on 24 October 2025, Prof Michael Saward (Warwick) discusses his article ’Shape-Shifting Representation.' American Political Science Review. 2014;108(4):723-736
Episode 9. Philippe van Parijs - Public Intellectuals & Representative Democracy
In this interview, recorded at the Bourse in Brussels on 6 December 2025, Prof Philippe van Parijs reflects on the role of the public intellectual within representative democracy, including his own contribution to public debates about and political campaigns for an unconditional basic income. Visions of Representation is a series of interviews with scholars in democratic theory recorded by Andrew Schaap as part of the EU Horizon-funded project Redirect (101095142).
Episode 10. Alfio Mastropaolo on Representation & Invention of Modern Politics
In this interview, recorded online on 29 February 2024, Professor Alfio Mastropaolo discusses the chapter on "Representation and the Invention of Modern Politics" from his book Waging War by Other Means: Historical Sociology of Democratic Government.
Conversations on Democratic Redirection
Representative democracy depends on more than elections. It rests on relationships of recognition, judgement and responsiveness between citizens and those who claim to speak for them. Across Europe, many citizens remain committed to democratic ideals while feeling distant from the institutions and actors meant to represent them. Conversations on Democratic Representation brings scholars together to explore this tension. Drawing on current REDIRECT research, the conversations ask where representative disconnect comes from, how it is experienced and what might enable reconnection.
Episode 1. Eline Severs on Young People and Representative Disconnect
In this conversation, Eline Severs (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) explores how young people experience
representative democracy. Drawing on REDIRECT focus groups with adolescents in Belgium and
Poland and interviews with young politicians across eight European countries, she reveals a generation that continues to believe in democratic ideals while remaining deeply dissatisfied with democracy as it is currently practised. She examines how social distance, unequal recognition and politicians’ limited understanding of socio-economically disadvantaged neighbhourhoods deepen the representative disconnect—and how meaningful dialogue and stronger relationships might begin to bridge it.
Episode 2. Elodie Thevenin on Youth Representation in Parliament
In this conversation, Elodie Thevenin (Jagiellonian University) asks whether young politicians represent younger citizens when they enter parliament. Drawing on REDIRECT research into speeches by young MPs in seven European countries and the European Parliament, she finds that they rarely claim explicitly to speak on behalf of young people. Yet age still enters their parliamentary work through references to personal experience and attention to issues that particularly affect younger citizens. She also examines how political parties may invoke youth as a strategic resource without translating it into a consistent commitment to representation.
Episode 3. John Erik Fossum on Rescaling Representation in the European Union
In this conversation, John Erik Fossum (University of Oslo) discusses how European integration is changing representative democracy. He presents the European Union as an experiment in democratic governing in which representation is being rescaled rather than simply transferred from the national to the European level. The European Parliament and national representative institutions reshape one another as member states adapt to supranational democracy. Fossum explains why this interaction requires us to reconsider how political authority, representation and accountability operate across multiple levels in Europe.
Episode 4. Katarzyna Zielińska on Civil Society and Democratic Reconnection
In this conversation, Katarzyna Zielińska (Jagiellonian University) discusses the role of civil society organisations in responding to dissatisfaction with representative democracy. Drawing on REDIRECT research in Poland, Norway, Italy and at the European Union level, the conversation examines how organisations engage citizens, connect underrepresented groups with political elites, and hold decision-makers accountable. It also considers participatory innovations such as citizens' panels while warning against citizen washing, in which participation legitimises decisions without influencing policy. Civil society can support democratic reconnection only when citizens' contributions have meaningful consequences.
Episode 5. Luca Verzichelli on Political Elites and the Fragility of Representation
In this conversation, Luca Verzichelli (University of Siena) discusses findings from the REDIRECT surveys of citizens and political elites. Political representatives are generally more supportive of democratic institutions and less sympathetic to authoritarian or populist positions than the public, yet they often struggle to communicate the value of representation. Verzichelli describes this as evidence of the fragility of representation rather than its disappearance. He argues that reconnecting citizens and representatives requires democratic innovation, opportunities for participation and deliberation, and renewed attention to the continuing role of political parties.
Episode 6. Magdalena Góra on European Democracy and Democratic Innovation
In this conversation, Magdalena Góra (Jagiellonian University) discusses how political actors debate democracy in the European Union. Based on analysis of European Parliament debates following the Conference on the Future of Europe and proposals for a European Democracy Shield, she identifies two central disagreements: whether democracy should remain anchored mainly at national level, and how representative institutions should relate to new participatory and deliberative formats. The conversation highlights the unresolved challenge of ensuring that citizen engagement strengthens—rather than competes with—representative democracy at the European level.
Episode 7. Marta Smagacz-Poziemska on Young People and Everyday Democracy
In this conversation, Marta Smagacz-Poziemska (Jagiellonian University) explores how young people understand democracy through their everyday lives. Drawing on REDIRECT focus groups in Kraków and Brussels, she finds a strong commitment to democratic values, including human rights and freedom of expression, alongside deep frustration with how democracy works in practice. Participants in Brussels speak of a “double-standard democracy”, while those in Kraków describe an “exhausting polarisation”. Her research shows that democratic attitudes are formed not only through formal politics but also through education, work, neighbourhoods and other everyday settings—making local experiences and emotions crucial to understanding representative disconnect.
Episode 8. Thomas Poguntke on Political Parties and Democratic Disconnect
In this conversation, Thomas Poguntke (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) examines how political parties have become increasingly disconnected from the societies they represent. He traces how many established parties have lost members and weakened their social roots while growing more dependent on state resources and public office. Although this transformation supports professional political careers, it can leave party organisations increasingly detached from citizens and local communities. Poguntke argues that the future of party democracy will depend on closing this distance by rebuilding parties’ roots in society and forging stronger relationships with their constituencies.
Episode 9. Paolo Marzi on Trustees, Delegates, and Responsible Responsiveness
In this conversation, Paolo Marzi (University of Siena) revisits one of the central dilemmas of democratic representation: should politicians follow citizens’ preferences or exercise their own judgement? Drawing on mass and elite surveys conducted across eight European countries, he finds that citizens are divided between these two ideals, while politicians generally favour greater autonomy. Interviews with young Italian representatives, however, suggest that the distinction is far less clear in practice. Marzi describes an alternative model of “responsible responsiveness”, in which representatives listen to citizens, weigh competing demands, make decisions and explain both their reasoning and the consequences of their choices.
Episode 10. Zsófia Papp on Asymmetric Accountability and Legislative Responsiveness
In this conversation, Zsófia Papp (ELTE Centre for Social Sciences) explores how citizens judge whether legislators are responsive—and which forms of responsiveness they value most. Drawing on a conjoint experiment conducted in five European countries, she identifies a consistent pattern of asymmetric accountability: voters penalise poor performance more heavily than they reward exceptional performance. They also place greater value on substantive policy work, resources delivered to constituencies and direct assistance to individuals than on symbolic gestures. Papp shows how this imbalance may shape representative behaviour, encouraging elected officials to avoid visible failures, minimise risks and preserve the status quo rather than pursue ambitious change.
Episode 11. Alice Moseley and Lise Herman on Citizens’ Assemblies and Democratic Reconnection
In this conversation, Alice Moseley and Lise Herman (University of Exeter) examine how citizens’ assemblies can help reconnect citizens with representative democracy. Drawing on REDIRECT research into climate assemblies in France and the United Kingdom, including media analysis and almost 40 interviews, they explore how deliberation within these institutions connects with wider public debate. They find greater visibility and contestation in France, showing how public engagement can bring criticism as well as support. The conversation considers how stronger links with policymaking and better public communication could increase assemblies’ democratic influence while addressing the risks of polarisation and political instrumentalisation. Mathieu Prevelato, a PhD candidate at Yale University, co-authored two of the three papers discussed in this interview.
