Citizens’ Preferences for Representation Styles: Exploring the Mandate–Independence Controversy in Eight European Countries

Sergio Martini and Paolo Marzi
Additional contact information
Sergio Martini: Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences, University of Siena, Italy
Paolo Marzi: Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences, University of Siena, Italy

Politics and Governance, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: How do citizens want to be represented? What individual-level factors are associated with variation in these preferences? While existing research emphasises the crucial link between citizens and elected representatives, surprisingly little attention has been given to citizens’ expectations regarding how representation should be exercised. This article investigates citizens’ preferences in eight European countries for one central dimension of representation styles: the mandate–independence controversy. Relying on data from an original comparative survey conducted in 2025 (N ≈ 15,000), we analyse how individual-level factors—ranging from ideological outlook and cognitive mobilisation to electoral status and democratic satisfaction—correlate with citizens’ positioning on the trustee–delegate continuum. Our findings highlight the relevance of deep-rooted ideological orientations and the important role of contingent political dynamics and factors such as democratic satisfaction. Also, the study highlights the importance of national contexts and cautions against broad generalisations drawn from single-country analyses or pooled comparative findings alone. The article contributes to the literature by investigating the nature and origins of preferences towards representation styles, unsettling the conventional view that such preferences reflect principled commitments. Rather, it suggests they might often be evaluation-based, contingent, and far less normatively anchored than is usually assumed.

Keywords: cognitive mobilisation; populism; representation styles; satisfaction with democracy; trustee–delegate continuum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/12015 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:poango:v14:y:2026:a:12015

DOI: 10.17645/pag.12015

Access Statistics for this article

Politics and Governance is currently edited by Carolina Correia

More articles in Politics and Governance from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().