What happens to the state of democracy when we reform multilevel polities: the test case of representation.

Multilevel political systems are subject to continuous territorial reform. These reforms have repercussions on the state of democracy of such polities. While this issue has been approached from a normative theoretical perspective in political science, empirical research is scarce. This project investigates how the effect of territorial reform on the state of democracy can be measured through political representation in multilevel polities, as the representation of the people and statespeople is an important dimension of democracy in multilevel polities. More specifically a theoretical framework and criteria will be developed to assess the state of democracy of a multilevel polity within the field of representation; and a pilot will be conducted to empirically assess the state of democracy after territorial reform in the field of representation by means of a representative claims analysis. The multilevel system of Belgium will serve as test case, more precisely the House of Representatives.

Keywords:DEMOCRACY, MULTILEVEL POLITICS, REPRESENTATION, EQUALITY

Disciplines:Political inequality, Federalism