the end of representative politics?

It is often argued today that representative politics is in crisis. Trust in politicians, political parties and even the political system is lower than ever, and for many people politics is at best an entertaining spectacle. At the same time, new forms of politics have emerged. In The End of Representative Politics, Simon Tormey argues that these new forms of politics represent a hope for the future. They do so by eschewing old forms of representative politics in a ‘politics without representatives’, and we have seen this in, among other places, the alter-globalisation protests, the Zapatistas in Chiapas, the indignados in Spain, Occupy Wall Street, and anti-government protests in Brazil and Turkey. These new forms of politics challenge our assumptions about politics and representation, and force us to think beyond the traditional party based democratic institutions – and that’s a good thing too. In this review symposium, Lisa Disch, Pablo Ouziel, Neal Lawson and Simon Tormey discuss the future of representative politics.