Sylvain Brouard, Elisa Deiss-Helbig, Eric Kerrouche, Olivier Costa, Tinette Schnatterer

Introduction France is characterized by a low level of civic involvement largely because of the inner weakness of its system of interest intermediation. Neither voluntary associations nor pressure groups nor political parties play an important role as points of access to the political system (Gabriel/Kerrouche/Keil 2011). Party-related and social participation have remained low in France, particularly in comparison with the countries in the neighborhood (Bréchon 2006: 65-78; Schain 2008). Such a configuration may explain why the topic of a crisis of representative democracy is especially acute in France (Rosanvallon 2002). One of the facets of this crisis lies in the divorce between citizens and elected representatives which is illustrated by the fact that only about one third of the French population trusts the deputy of their constituency and even fewer do so regarding MPs in general (28.3 %). One can also underline other symptoms of a crisis of representative democracy in France: in addition to the growing lack of confidence of citizens in politicians, French MPs are often criticized for their inability to mirror the population in terms of age, gender, level of education, occupation, and ethnic background (Costa/Kerrouche 2007). That being said, understanding representation in France implies to underscore the very important constraints that apply to parliamentary representation under the Fifth Republic. A first set of restrictions is linked to the features of the political system itself, since the constitution of 1958 was deliberately designed to weaken the parliament. One of its