Political Representation in Spain: An Empirical Analysis of the Perception of Citizens and MPs

Political representation has been widely studied from a theoretical perspective, but empirical research has been more scarce, mainly due to the lack of suitable data. This article attempts to contribute to this flourishing field with an analysis of the results of a survey that was administered in 1997 both to Spanish MPs and to citizens, which inquired about different aspects of political representation. We concentrate on analysing the way the role of representative is conceived both by citizens and by MPs, as well as the perception of the role of political parties in the process of representation. The final section looks at the levels of satisfaction of citizens and MPs with the way political representation takes place in Spain.