Minority Presence in Constituencies and Electoral Representation

Research across many states has shown that partisan cleavages and voting preferences are often divided along ethnic lines. Nonetheless, the impact of such social diversity on electoral politics remains a relatively understudied topic, particularly outside of the United States. Such ethnically defined cleavages can lead to the under-representation of minority interests, or conversely can provide incentives for parties to encourage minority political participation. This paper addressed this gap through an ecological analysis of the influence of the demographic composition of electoral districts. The study compares the recent parliamentary elections in three countries: Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom. This research examines how the proportion of linguistic and ethnic minorities in electoral districts influences vote share and candidate selection for specific parties.