Modes of Political Representation in the European Union

Modern democracy is defined by the principle of political representation. Decisions are justified by pointing to the representative character of the actors and institutions involved in the policy-making process. Over a period of three centuries, beginning in the 18 century various models of modern representative systems developed differing in the locus of sovereignty, the authorisation of representatives, the power of representatives, the style of representation, the scope of representation, and the modes of accountability. While it is true that the emergence of representative forms of government can be traced back to the Roman period and the early Middle Ages (Hofmann 1974, Podlech 1984, Ullmann 1975, Pollak 2007a) its intimate relation with democracy only developed in the 20 century. It would be a grave mistake to assume an intrinsic relation between political representation and democracy since there are many kinds of representation with scarce respect for democratic core principles like equality and autonomy (Manin 1997: 236). Liberal representative democracy emphasizing individual freedom, equality and a constitutional framework only emerged in the first half of the short 20 century, truncated versions being in place in some parts of the world beforehand.