The increasing use of participatory arrangements in local governance challenges the position and role of elected politicians. This article examines how local elected politicians think they should behave in such a shifting environment. It assembles images and sets of roles blending existing theoretical approaches. We test these conceptions empirically in a survey of local elected politicians in Flanders (Belgium). Our results show that representatives identify with a variety of images. They thus tend to endorse a broad range of roles in participatory governance. Ultimately, we end up with two main comprehensive and integrated sets: “meta-governor” and “resistor.” Variations in these sets can partially be explained by the position of politicians and their ideological convictions.
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