Bitter-Sweet Democracy?

Discussions about the 'crisis of representative democracy' have dominated scholarly and public discourse for some time now. But what does this phrase actually entail, and what is its relevance today? How do citizens themselves experience, feel and respond to this 'crisis'? Bitter-Sweet Democracy grapples with the complexities of these questions in the context of citizens' relations to politics in Belgium-a nation that has experienced political instability and protests as well as social mobilization and democratic vitality in recent years.

This timely and compelling volume offers new, empirical evidence on the state of trust, democracy and representation in Belgium; it further introduces an innovative methodological and conceptual framework to study this 'crisis', specifically by developing the concept of political resentment. The essays in this collection span diverse topics, from citizens' conceptions of democracy itself and the expression of political resentment among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, to the influence of different emotional dimensions of resentment on protest behaviours. By adopting a distinctive affective lens and by building upon the specific case of Belgium, this volume contributes to the broader conversation on political resentment and the critical role of emotions in contemporary politics.

Bitter-Sweet Democracy will be invaluable for scholars researching the relationship between emotions and politics, political representation and democracy, and citizen-led conceptualizations of politics. It will also appeal to decision-makers and citizens seeking to understand the challenges facing democracy, as well as a wider audience of academics and students in the fields of political science, political psychology and sociology.

Louise Knops is currently post-doctoral researcher at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She completed her doctoral thesis on the concept of indignation and actively contributes to ongoing theoretical discussions on emotions, politics and democracy. She was previously a researcher for the Centre for European Policy Studies, and has published in leading international journals such as Mobilization, Representation or the International Journal of Communication. She is involved in several working groups of the European Consortium for European Research (ECPR) and is currently coordinating part of the work of the EoS-RepResent inter-university project on resentment.

François Randour is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political, Social and Communication sciences, University of Namur and associate researcher at ISPOLE, UCLouvain. His research and teaching interests focus on EU decision-making processes, regional, national and European parliaments, multi-level governance, federalism, citizen attitudes and political discourse analysis. He has been a visiting fellow at Sciences Po Paris, Manheim University and at the University of Antwerp and an invited professor at UCLouvain, the University of Antwerp, Sciences Po and UNamur. He has published in internal journal, such as Discourse & Society, Journal of Language and Politics, Journal of Common Market Studies and Journal of Legislative Studies.

Heidi Mercenier is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) and the Université catholique de Louvain. She is also a Visiting Professor at the Université Saint-Louis-Bruxelles (USL-B). Heidi Mercenier's main research interest lies in citizens' relationships with politics, especially towards the EU, as well as how current digitalization processes affect such relationships. She has been publishing in leading political science journals such as the Journal of European Public Policy and Politique européenne, and she has co-edited two books (Bruylant and Université de libre de Bruxelles). She completed her Phd at the Université Saint-Louis-Bruxelles (USL-B) and she worked as a lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) and as a visiting fellow at the Center for European Studies (ARENA) of the University of Oslo.