The specific marks of the primary emotions of local elected representatives
Our reflections are based on a series of interviews carried out in France, Italy and Japan aimed at elucidating the emotional preparedness of local elected politicians when they take up office. A review of the existing literature on the democracy of emotions leads us to conclude that in spite of the increasing specialisation, diversification and cross-fertilization of political subject-matter and the increasing complexity of questions that such massification imposes, little guidance is available to throw light on the fundamental emotional preparednesss of those elected and how such emotional predisposition can be the key to their future political engagement. The first part of the study recounts two findings in our research: on the one hand the recurrence of the choked emotions of deeply embedded memories (perhaps of family wounds, of affective fragility and an engrained sense of the injustices of this world); on the other hand the formulation of fundamental trauma, perhaps felt during the first experiences of electoral competition (and occuring under the three registers of euphoria, personal confidence and the strong feelings of attachment to a particular place). The second part analyses this data as related to areas of knowledge concerning political engagement and the exercise of power. The author defends, if only in an exploratory way, an approach which appeals to the notions of ego-politics and democratic sensitivity in order to understand the role of these primary emotions in the exercise of power in terms of mediation, eligibility and individualisation. The essay concludes with a reflection on the protocols of a type of research which integrates both autobiographical and literary introspective elements.