Substantive Representation Through a Claims-Making Lens: A Strategy for the Identification and Analysis of Substantive Claims

Within the scholarship on substantive representation, representation is increasingly perceived in terms of 'claiming to speak for' the represented. Although this constructivist turn to substantive representation creates promising avenues for further research, it makes it ever more difficult to set processes of representation apart from other, more generic, forms of communication. This article seeks to redress this situation in two ways: firstly, by introducing the concept of 'substantive claims' as a more apt translation of substantive representation into the 'claims-making' paradigm; and secondly, by developing an interpretive schema which allows for identifying and analysing these substantive claims. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This article is part of a research programme on the substantive representation of women, the elderly and migrants, which has been made possible by a research grant from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO – G.0083.08N). An earlier version of this article has been presented at the panel 'Fresh perspectives on studying political representation and participation' at the 2nd European Conference on Politics and Gender, Budapest, 13–15 January, 2011. I would like to thank participants in that panel for their comments on the draft. Thanks are also due to Silvia Erzeel, Diana O'Brien, Rosa Malley and Jo Legg for their extremely supportive comments. I am equally grateful to Karen Celis, Petra Meier and Peter Thijssen for their input and thoughtful suggestions during the entire process.