A representation deficit? Sense of representation and electoral participation in a former communist municipality

This article considers the link between representation and the electoral participation of residents from social housing estates. Beyond their perception, it studies the relationship between participation and links with representatives. Based on a sociohistorical survey in Le Blanc-Mesnil, a former communist municipality, it formulates several hypotheses concerning the weakness of the sense of political representation that prevails among the inhabitants of social housing estates. The survey notes the rise of abstention during the 1980s. Opposition to representation by the elected representatives of the left-wing majority grew during the years 1990–2010. Spokespersons then emerged to try to represent the inhabitants of housing estates within the municipal executive. Their difficulties, both in being recognized as legitimate interlocutors and in participating in the left-wing list, reinforced the mistrust of elected representatives among the majority. These spokespersons and candidates for representation (almost exclusively male) actively participate in the construction of the inhabitants’ sense of representation. In the public sphere, they insist in particular on the importance of social and territorial representation and on knowing the inhabitants' difficulties. However, by varying the enunciative situation, identification with the representatives can also take on an ethno-racial dimension, which remains largely confined to the “hidden text,” because it is considered illegitimate.