Abstract

[Political representation and interests representation between dis-intermediation and re-intermediation: an initial assessment]. The impact of the digital revolution on democratic systems and on interests representation has been so significant to produce long-term consequences on our understanding and functioning of democratic institutions. On the one hand, in the political system, personalization, leaderization and the revival of so-called “direct democracy” are suggesting new ways to renew the fundamental promise of the democracy. On the other hand, in the interests representation system, the crisis of the interest groups and the overcoming of concerted decision-making as a method for the definition of shared public policies is produceing a progressive weakening of the traditional intermediation in policy making between social, political and institutional actors. Nonetheless, leaderization, disintermediation and “direct democracy” also seem to promote new forms of mediation. An evolutionary scenario is therefore emerging, in which political innovation in participation and representation processes coexist with dangerous pitfalls for our democracy polity. And we will try to take stock of this.