Research Papers

In recent years political scientists and the political class have shown concern for increasing the electorate's interest and participation in democratic political society as a whole. The response of researchers has tended to seek ways to increase civic engagement. Yet evidence has also been found (from Norris 2003 onwards) of the changing nature of civic participation rather than its decline. In addition, feminist women of varying ages have since the 1990s both questioned the existing political representation system for its biased composition, and sought to enter it en masse by insisting that political parties must field ever-greater proportions of women candidates for election to public office. One way towards a more participatory democracy is to seek a revitalization of formal democratic structures leading to a deepening of their roots in society. Democracies offer citizens a vote for local, regional, national and European-level representatives, and employ many thousands of elected law- and policy-makers partially or wholly at public expense in each country. What kind of \'representation\' do they perform for citizens? While their role as legislators is researched, their role as representatives of the people is under-problematised in the context of citizens\' expectations in the 21st century. So questions can be asked regarding how far formal representation systems can offer citizens more than just periodic votes, namely real engagement with policy and lawmaking at local and national level. And what kind of representatives and relations of representation do citizens want, and how do these preferences differ by gender and ethnicity? Revitalised and more effective \'relations of representation\' can be considered a venue for greater political participation