‘Representation’ and Dàibiǎo: a comparative study of the notions of political representation in France and China

By scrutinizing the semantics of words and going beyond a nominalist approach, this article compares the theoretical, linguistic and discursive evolution of the notion of representation in France and China, from its ancient origins to its contemporary interpretations. We argue that the word “representation” in English and “dàibiǎo 代表” in Chinese are not interchangeable synonymous, because “representation” includes a symbolic dimension that is absent in dàibiǎo, and because the latter is rarely used when informal representation is concerned. We also argue that both Chinese and Anglo-American political science research overemphasizes mandated representation and underestimates symbolic representation. Furthermore, our empirical research in three provinces of China and two regions of France demonstrates that in both countries, local officials and elected politicians serve a similar role of political intermediaries, who embody state power and respond to citizens’ demands simultaneously, thus enabling a de-facto representative loop. Such argument refutes the current understanding of representation as a “one-way authorization” that is supposed to come either from below (i.e. from the people) in the electoral democracies or from above (i.e. from the state authority) in authoritarian regimes and thus challenges the over-simplistic dichotomy of democratic and authoritarian regimes in representative studies.