Call For Papers: ECPR General Conference 2013, Bordeaux, France

4-7 Sept 2013

DEADLINE FOR PAPER PROPOSALS: JANUARY, 31st. http://new.ecpr.eu/events/panellist.aspx?EventID=5&SectionID=79 PANEL: Attitudes Towards Representatives and Representative Institutions in Democratic Systems Panel Chair: Pablo Oñate (University of Valencia) Panel Co-Chair: Åsa Bengtsson (Åbo Akademi) Abstract: Representation – the mutual relationship between the governed and the governing – constitutes a crucial part of modern democracies. It does however appear as if the relationship is under stress, as citizens express growing levels of dissatisfaction with political actors and institutions. The way in which political actors themselves, by the way they shape their role as political representatives, contribute to this negative development is yet to be explored, and the general level of knowledge concerning peoples’ expectations on their political representatives is still very weak. A major problem is of course that political representation is a highly complex phenomenon, involving different actors and agencies, different objects and styles of representation as well as various arenas. What people expect from political representation and representatives, whether they are satisfied with the existing patterns and styles of representation and the determinants of citizens’ attitudes towards representation in national political systems as well as at the European level, are questions at focus in this panel. We invite papers addressing these issues empirically using a comparative or a single-country case-study approach, but also papers engaging in methodological reflections on how to study representation “from below” are welcome. http://new.ecpr.eu/events/panellist.aspx?EventID=5&SectionID=79