Searching for representation: Romanian parliamentary elites and their political roles

Abstract

In the recent years, the Romanian Parliament became one of the main political battlegrounds. The continuous procedural reconfigurations, the MPs' interparty mobility and the lack of a robust legislative activity raised numerous questions regarding the quality of representation. In a general context described by a defective Parliamentary functioning, what is the meaning that can be ascribed to "political representation" in nowadays Romania? Starting both from institutional arrangements and MPs' opinions the present article seeks to investigate the different (contradictory) facets of the parliamentary mandates. The exploratory scrutiny of the parliamentary representation consists in four main section: after an overall investigation of the main meanings of political representation in the Romanian context, the following sections will pinpoint to the main contradictions in the comprehension of this process on three dimensions: the reconfigurations in the relationship between MPs and their (imagined) constituencies, the sinuous collaboration of these elites with their own parties, and the "clandestine" dimension of parliamentary activity. The conclusions of the study will pinpoint to fact that the Romanian MPs are not in the service of the people, nor they are party or constituency servants, but they are rather subjects of government.