Since the beginning of modernity, representative government has been conceived as the central institution of democracy. However, it had to be complemented by the metaphor of a “political body” as a foundation for national integration. But such a metaphor has vanished in recent decades and, simultaneously, so has the social representation of the body as a unit for action and/or a support for emancipation. Between the challenges to memory posed by extermination, the continuing existence of racism and the reproduction of sexual stereotypes, the body rather appears as the material indicator of ambiguousness, not to say fragmentation. If representative government is unable to constitute such an experience as a political object, participation can contribute to such a process. However, it would have to clarify its normative requisites and to join other initiatives, such as artistic critique of politics.