The Performativity of Political Representation: Constructing the Public, Constructing the Democratic Subject

Abstract

This chapter discusses the performativity of political representation in democracy. Such performativity consists in the capacity of political representation as a series of institutions and social practices to offer a public language and a public space for democratic politics. It is argued that political representation is, in Claude Lefort’s terms, democracy’s mise en scène. With Lefort, this chapter argues that in democracy the place of power is ‘empty’; but differently from Lefort, it argues that this emptiness does not mean a complete disembodiment of power, but rather its diffusion. In the last two sections, the chapter shows how political representation is instrumental in constructing the unity of the political community, as well as providing opportunities for the democratic subjects and their struggles for representation.