This book discusses political representation both as a political idea and a principle of law. Representation was a topic of political debates throughout the 19th and 20th century and the debate has intensified with today’s so-called «crisis of representation». The issue always relates to the political system in practice and this study takes into account the obvious assertion that it is impossible to imagine contemporary political systems without representation: Political representation is a principle of law and a process of correlating the political will of the representative and the represented.

Jarosław Szymanek is Professor at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Warsaw. He specializes in Polish and comparative constitutional law and contemporary political systems.