Venturing Beyond the Vote: Routes to Feeling Represented through Unelected Representation
Venturing Beyond the Vote: Routes to Feeling Represented through Unelected Representation (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123425000080) was written by Andrea Vik, Pieter de Wilde, Oliver Treib, and Lene Aarøe in 2025. It was published in the British Journal of Political Science (vol. 55).
The authors analyze unelected 'representation'. They identify three 'routes' through which officials claim to represent individuals that did not elect them.
descriptive representation through demographic congruence
substantive representation through policy preference congruence
psychological representation through personality and ideology congruence
They then analyze the efficacy of these routes through a conjoint survey experiment.
- Web survey administered by Kantar
Administered in four countries: Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Romania
- About 2000 responses per country
- Covers a wide range of democratic quality, which is expected to be an important predictor
- Pre-treatment questions collected all demographic, policy preference, and attitudinal information required to calculate congruence by any of the above routes.
- Respondents are asked to evaluate two Twitter-like profiles for how well-represented they feel.
- The two profiles are varied by:
- apparent sex (e.g., name and profile picture)
- generation (i.e., age listed in profile: Gen Z=20, Millenial=35, Gen X=55, Boomer=70)
- narcissism (i.e., "I am a leader..." vs "I do not consider myself a leader...")
- agreeableness (i.e., "...pleasant and kind..." vs "...never taking no for an answer...")
- policy positions:
- environmental policy to address climate change
- immigration
- taxing the rich
The authors find a substantive representation effect, mostly on environmental policy and immigration. The effect is stronger among older and more politically interested individuals. It is also weaker in Romania, substantiating the idea that policy-oriented theories of politics suffer from a Western bias.
The authors find smaller psychological representation and descriptive representation effects.