I will propose a synthesis of my book manuscript in which I explore some metamorphoses of representative democracy as they develop in the domain of opinion. Representative democracy is a diarchic system composed of two pillars, the "will" and "opinion"; in today's constitutional democracies the challenges come not so much from the former pillar (the rules of the game) but from the last, the informal power of political judgment. Today the issue of freedom of expression and formation of political opinions seems to be how the public forum of ideas can succeed in remaining a public good and play its monitoring, cognitive, and dissenting role if video-power effects politics so radically and if information industry in many different parts of the word belongs to a relative small number of private individuals. Within this scenario which belongs to all consolidated democracies, I will analyze one disfiguration of democratic politics in particular, what I call audience plebiscitarianism.
Representative democracy; Crisis; Parliamentary government; Plebiscite of audience