Uneasy Representation of Group Identities: Gender and Ethnicity in Parliamentary Politics

There is a fundamental tension in contemporary democracy: the uneasy place of gender and ethnicity in political representation. Worried about unequal representation of women and minorities, societies meticulouysly track politicians’ gender and ethnicity. At the same time, minority politicians and the parties they represent reject the idea that parliamentarians should only represent "those who are like them". The ideal of equal representation is simultaneously embraced and resisted. This paper puts this tension under the magnifying glass: under which conditions and why do visible minority Members of Parliament (MPs) actively or passively promote group identities? It shows how Dutch political parties and visible minority politicians have agonized over what good representation entails and how it should be achieved for decades. The Netherlands is an excellent case to study diversity and representation in action. Committed to fair representation of ethnic groups, the country championed multiculturalism early on. It was also a hotbed of political feminism. Pressured by the women’s movement the Dutch state established advisory councils for women and funded political party efforts to boost female participation. But the eventual backlash against multiculturalism and feminism revealed the full uneasiness with group representation. Present-day political parties want visible minorities to draw votes from minority communities, but they shun the overt showcasing of ethnic identities. They welcome what I call passive representation of identities (e.g. voters falling for the background or sex of candidates) but discourage active representation (e.g. pro-actively advocating group interests). Visible minority politicians face a dilemma: they cannot, or may not want to, cater to a specific ethnic group and, at the same time, remain an overall representative party member. On the surface, the Dutch political establishment is committed to fair political representation across society. Political practice, however, shows how troubled the relationship with gender and ethnicity in politics is. Building on established theories of political representation and intersectionality this paper analyzes how group representation has been vexing parties and politicians, and which strategies they have employed in response. It develops the distinction between passive and active representation, which allows us to come to terms with the messiness of political representation in contemporary Western democracies. The pillar of the paper are the experiences of visible minority MPs since 1986, when the first visible minority representative took office. The evolution over time and differences between groups show that identities are not something politicians simply have, like a birthday. Instead, they mold their identity strategically depending on their political role, the expectations of the party or the political climate. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with visible minority MPs I develop a theoretical framework that approaches identities and different dimensions of representation as a flexible and context-dependent spectrum.