Safe, Inclusive, Representative? Parties’ Strategies to Strengthen Political Representation

Abstract

Intimidation, harassment, and violence in politics have dire consequences for political representation and democratic integrity across the world (see e.g. Krook 2020; Bjarnegård & Zetterberg 2023). As key organisations of political recruitment, socialisation, and policy articulation, political parties are central to addressing these challenges and ensuring that activists, candidates and elected representatives are not inhibited from political activism, from campaigning and from fulfilling their representative duties (Håkansson 2023; Kosiara-Pedersen 2025). In this light, this panel examines how parties—both as organisations and in public office— can strengthen democratic representation. It includes papers that focus on parties' measures to prevent and respond to intimidation, harassment, and violence, as well as on parties’ policy, communication and organisational strategies to represent a wider set of interests.

Title	Details
Intra-Party Divisions and the Electoral Success of Party Policy Shifts	View Paper Details
Parties and Sexual Harassment Rules in Canada: A Feminist Institutionalist Comparative Analysis	View Paper Details
Democratic Problem, Individual Responsibility? Strategies and Practices for Handling Online Political Harassment in the Swedish Parliament	View Paper Details
Parties’ Handling and Prevention of Political Harassment and Violence	View Paper Details
Pioneering Indigenous Intra-Party Representation: the Sámi, the Norwegian Labour Party, and a New Model for Indigenous Inclusion	View Paper Details