Linking Voices and Votes: Narrative as Key Element in the Political Representation Process

Abstract

In the last two decades, various authors (Rosanvallon 2009; Annunziata 2015; Saward 2010) have pointed out the insufficiency of electoral representation for current democracies and the need to think about representation in a permanent way and consider the interaction between leadership, representation and communication. Currently, leaders make continuous use of the tools of political communication to build and consolidate their status as representatives. In this article we argue that leaders develop a representative narrative that aims to transmit their political message and shape political identities. The representative narrative is the fundamental instrument in the process of representative vindication mentioned by Saward (2006), since through this set of stories the leaders vindicate their condition as leaders, present a type of citizen whom they aspire to represent and expose a collective history in which they project a future horizon.