Representation Styles

Overview & Synopsis

The debate around how representatives should take political decisions is a long-standing one in political studies, which traces back to philosophical disputes between supporters of independent judgment vis-à-vis those of politicians' delegate functions. During the 20th century, such normative debate gradually translated into an empirical stream of research focusing on the representative role orientations, more commonly defined as styles, of political candidates and representatives. This entry aims at summarizing such academic debate, stressing its relevance and future directions. The main take-home message is that representatives' role orientations are influenced by multiple factors, including individual, party and electoral system-level characteristics. In addition, representation styles have the potential to affect the quality of communications between voters and elites, as politicians holding specific styles have been found to be more accurate at understanding and reflecting their voters' policy interests. The entry concludes by mentioning recent studies exploring these issues from a transnational perspective.