Unrepresentative Claims: Speaking for Oneself in a Social Movement

Abstract

Sometimes, people engaged in politics actively refuse to speak for anyone but themselves. These unrepresentative claims multiply in social movements in times of crisis. During the French Yellow Vest movement of 2018–2019, such unrepresentative claims were routinely made by Yellow Vest leaders, to the point of being a condition for having a leadership position in the movement. By making these unrepresentative claims, they declined any representative mandate, asserting their freedom from any instituted influence. However, by claiming to speak only for themselves, they also selected the aspects of their identity they performed. This allowed them to embody the people sharing this identity, recalling the medieval repraesentatio identitatis, but in a way adjusted to today’s greater personalization of politics. Drawing on this movement and on other examples of unrepresentative claims, we can delineate three broad ideal-types of identities that may be put forward by unrepresentative claims: generality, particularity, and individuality.

From the People, Like the People, or For the People? Candidate Appraisal Among the French Yellow Vests

“…This begs the dual issue of the generalizability and durability of such an effect on populist citizens. Even though the YV share a common frame with grassroot protest movements that emerged in the wake of the Great Recession, one of its specificities is that protesters have strongly casted political conflicts aside and discarded self‐designated leaders so as to remain united and focused on the divide between themselves and the elites (André et al, 2019; Guerra et al, 2019; Hayat, 2021). For that reason, radical‐left as well as radical‐right leaders did not succeed in infusing the movement with their antiausterity or anti‐immigration discourses.…”

Anti-vaccination as political dissent – a post-political reading of Yellow Vests’ accounts of Covid-19, vaccines and the Health pass

“…I realize, as Prentoulis and Thomassen (2013, 169) point out, that this endeavour is both necessary and impossible. It is necessary because the YVMs, as did the anti-austerity movements, reject representation (Hayat 2021;Rosanvallon 2020). To take these movements seriously thus unavoidably implies trying to analyze their own discourse.…”

“…Originally a protest against the Macron-government's proposed rise in fuel prices, the YVM soon adopted other issues such as demands for constitutional reform, more use of referendums and better social-and working rights. The YVM was by many seen as a revolt against the neoliberalism of president Emmanuel Macron, but also against the current system of political representation, similar to the anti-austerity movements that appeared in several countries almost a decade earlier (Hayat 2021;Rosanvallon 2020). Studies show that the YVM was characterized by the proportion of participants and supporters that did not place themselves on the political left/right spectrum (60%), and by the share of participants that voted for either the radical right or the radical left (Collectif d'enquête sur les Gilets Jaunes et al 2019;Algan et al 2019).…”

“…Although there have been conducted quantitative studies on the relationship between political trust and attitudes to the Health pass and vaccination in France (Spire, Bajos, and Silberzan 2021;Ward et al 2020), qualitative studies are yet to appear, nor has there been published research on the links between the YVM and attitudes towards the pandemic, vaccination and the Health pass. More importantly, while the YVM has been thoroughly theorized (Rancière 2019;Rosanvallon 2020;Hayat 2021), there still lacks theorization of the relationship between political trust and attitudes to This is what I try to amend in this article. Therefore, the article is of interest outside the specific context of the YVM and France, as it analyzes how political trust affected reactions to the pandemic, how political trust is interconnected with conspiracy theories and finally how such conspiracy theories can be viewed as biproducts of the post-political order.…”

Becoming political while avoiding politics: a study of Yellow Vests first-timers

“… 6 There have been very few empirical studies published in English on the Yellow Vests. See, however, Guerra et al ( 2019 ) and Hayat ( 2022 ). For a synthesis, see Fillieule and Dafflon ( 2022 ).…”