Political Representation in Pandemic Times

The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting an important opportunity to study the (mis)functioning of representative democracies around the globe. It is an understatement to argue that the COVID-19 has a deep, and no doubt, lasting impact on the organization and functioning of contemporary democracies, citizens’ attitudes towards government, and the relation between citizens and their (national) governments. Key democratic mechanisms, such as checks and balances and the overall balance between the legislature and government, are being put to the test. In many cases, the pandemic has contributed to an expansion of executive powers to the detriment of accountability mechanisms weakening parliamentary representatives’ oversight and policy-making capacities. Citizens, while originally acceptant of COVID-19 measures, are expressing growing discontent over the far-reaching implications of policies that seek to suppress or halt the spread of COVID-19. Citizen discontent has become fertile ground to both the circulation of conspiracy theories and political polarisation, resulting even in outward anger and hostility among citizens. While the overall picture may, at present, seem foreboding, the pandemic also testifies of the vitality of representative democracy. Many legislatures have been quite actively involved in the pandemic response proving their resilience and adaptive capacity in times of crisis. Citizens and civil society organizations have organised themselves in support of each other and the most vulnerable in society. The global scale of the pandemic may foster international cooperation and shore up trust in international institutions, like the EU and the United Nations. In response to the COVID-19 measures, citizens are actively thinking about their rights as citizens and the contours of government. Clearly, the range of effects that COVID-19 is producing in its wake are manifold and likely to raise theoretical, empirical and normative questions of political representation. This section brings together panels that analyse the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of political representation. Panel topics include: - Health politics and political representation - Parliamentary politics and responses to Covid-19 - The world is a stage: political representation and performance - Global pandemics and the political representation of historically disadvantaged groups - Pandemic politics and democratic innovation: imagining our future - Covid-19, social mobilisation and non-electoral forms of political representation - Populist representation during the pandemic - Executive-legislative-judiciary relations during the pandemic