Unelected Representation

Greta Thunberg was TIME's Person of the Year in 2019 due to her “...bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders, for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads..” (Felsentahl, 2019). In other words, a young woman without electoral legitimacy has gained public perception as an unelected representative. The concept of unelected representation emerged from the constructivist turn in representation, where representation as a concept is no longer bound by an electoral process but instead created through the communication process of claim-making. Consequently, representation expands to include unelected representation, when unelected representatives make representative claims on behalf of self-articulated constituencies. But what do we know of this concept? In this book entry, I will define and conceptualize unelected representation, why it matters for political communication, the newest research on the subject, and where we can go from here.