Covering distance
Essays on representation and political communication av
Martin Karlsson
Akademisk avhandling
Avhandling för filosofie doktorsexamen i statskunskap, som kommer att försvaras offentligt
fredagen den 20 december 2013 kl. 13.15, Hörsal F, Örebro universitet Opponent: Professor Thomas Zittel
Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Tyskland
Örebro universitet
Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap
Abstract
Martin Karlsson (2013): Covering distance: Essays on representation and political communication. Örebro Studies in Political Science 33.
Political representatives’ democratic legitimacy rests on their ability to cover the distance between themselves and citizens. Representatives must avoid being perceived as distant and aloof from the needs and wishes of those they represent. The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of how new forms of communication with citizens, through participatory initiatives as well as political blogging, are used by politicians in their roles as representatives. Underlying this aim is the question of whether new forms of communication can contribute to reducing the distance between representatives and citizens. The central argument of this thesis is that such types of communication aid representative democracy only to the extent that they offer representatives efficient channels for performing functions related to political representation.
This study presents a theoretical framework that identifies potential functions of communication between representatives and citizens for polit-ical representation. Its empirpolit-ical analyses, presented in five articles, find that representatives widely communicate with citizens through participa-tory initiatives and political blogging to aid their roles as political repre-sentatives. Furthermore, results show that representatives’ communication is significantly determined by strategic, practical, and normative factors. The representatives are found to act strategically as communication prac-tices are adapted to accommodate their particular situations, needs and normative orientations.
Keywords: Political Representation, Political Communication, Participatory Initiatives, Political Blogging.
Martin Karlsson, Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhälls- vetenskap. Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden,
