Introduction: Political representation in France and Germany

This book is about political representation in France and Germany. It explores and compares what French and German Members of Parliament (MPs) think about representation and their roles as representatives, how they organize their interactions with the electorate at the district level and how citizens perceive and assess the quality of the representation process in these two large West European democracies. These issues deserve scholarly interest for several reasons. The questions as to whether, to what degree and in what respect the elected MPs perceive themselves as representatives of the political community, and what a “good representative” should look like in the eyes of the citizens, are at the core of normative theories of representative democracy. However, as already shown in Hanna Pitkin’s (1967) pioneering work, representation is not an uncontested concept, and questions concerning the quality of representation have not only been addressed by many works on theories of democracy, but have also received attention in a plethora of empirical research

Citizens and Representatives in France and Germany

CITOYENS ET PARLEMENTAIRES EN ALLEMAGNE ET EN FRANC

Political representation in France and Germany: attitudes and activities of citizens and MPs

Notwithstanding its contemporary critics, political representation remains at the core of democratic politics. Based on a comparative research project that gathered data from observations, surveys, experiments and expert interviews, this book examines the process and the quality of political representation in France and Germany from a dual perspective. First, it analyzes MPs’ behavior during their district activities. Second, it investigates the perceptions and evaluations of the represented, the French and German citizens. In ten chapters different facets of MPs’ activities as well as citizens’ attitudes are comparatively investigated. The book is relevant for Politics scholars and practitioners at national parliaments to better understand representative democracies, and it may also contribute to improve representation itself

Citizens and Representatives in France and Germany

CITOYENS ET PARLEMENTAIRES EN ALLEMAGNE ET EN FRANC