In person icon Class, Gender, Diversity and Political Representation: Intersections of Identity and Responsiveness II

Abstract

This panel explores the complex relationships between class, gender, diversity and political representation. By examining how these social identities intersect to influence both citizen attitudes and reprsentative claims, the panel contributes to a nuanced understanding of the evolving dynamics within representative democracies. All papers combine an interest in understanding what representation means today and adopt novel empirical appraoches to studying political reprsentation. Papers in this panel investigate the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation. They draw on focus group discussions with Brussels youth to explore their understandings of and expectations towards representative democracy, research unequal representation in electoral pledges in Germany and France, and document patterns of unequal responsiveness (disadvantaging lower-income groups) in seven West European countries. Other papers draw on social identity theory to explore whether and how descriptive representation affects historically marginalized groups' attitudes towards democratic institutions, and consider the ways in which marginalized groups' political participation can produce counter-hegemonic narratives of "affirmative refusal”.

Title	Details
Reimagining Political Representation Beyond the Margins: Hegemony, Inclusion and Imaginaries of Emancipation	View Paper Details
The Representative Disconnect of Urban Youth What Young People in the Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Neighborhoods of Brussels Expect from Their Political Representatives.	View Paper Details
Unequal Promises: Target Population Power and Pledge Fulfilment	View Paper Details
Group Consciousness, Descriptive Representation and Perceptions of Democratic Institutions	View Paper Details
The Public as Thermostat 2.0	View Paper Details