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Political parties are the backbone of any democratic regime. Nevertheless, parties are often criticized for being outdated, inefficient, or even redundant. It is often claimed that political parties are no longer accountable to their voters and that they do not truly represent their needs and interests. European parties–which are believed to follow the Responsible Party Model–are even more in a bind because such a model entails a topdown type of representation, strengthening the criticism that parties are elitist and detached from their voters.

This research focuses on the representative role of European parties. It explores the way elected representatives–in more than ninety European parties–construct their views on and comprehension of their representative role. European parties tend to be classified as belonging to the Responsible Party Model. According to this model, voters vote for an overall platform, presented to them by political parties. Parties then commit their representatives to this platform, using different resources and instruments, so that the party is in fact the core institution which facilitates political representation. In other words, it makes sense to expect European partisan representatives, in their focus of representation, to demonstrate a bias toward the political party and hence for European parties to be cohesive and unified.