Mídia e democracia: indeterminação e representatividade da representação

Abstract

We question here the presuppositions of the contemporary democracy’s so-called “crisis of representation” and the specific role of mass media on it, from a theoretical perspective not so committed to the individualistic or sociologic kinds of substantialism that seem to dominate the current analysis on that “crisis”. To do so we first proceed by a reappraisal of some founding theories of modern representative democracy. The objective is to contribute to demystify the notion of “representation”, as it has been used by many statements on the “crisis”, by showing that in its inception the representative character of the new republican order created in Western Civilization referred itself very little – or almost not at all – to some real concern about representativeness (as it is conceived today). Finally, we sketch a different defense of the political and institutional insertion of the media in today’s polyarchy based on a reassessment of the question of “representativeness” for the stability and efficacy of our political, representative, system.

Keywords

• Representation
• Political theory
• Media