Parliamentary candidates’ attitudes towards descriptive and substantive representation

The theory of the politics of presence (Phillips 1995) suggests that female politicians share the experiences of other women and are thus better equipped to represent women's interests. Empirical findings regarding the link between descriptive and substantive representation have, however, been mixed. Moreover, while it has been extensively studied related to gender, only recently has research started to look at other groups, in particular immigrants. Surprisingly little attention has also been paid to the extent that MPs themselves think that MPs belonging to a certain group are better equipped to represent the interests of that group. Yet, since MPs are the key players in parliament whose central function is to represent their voters, it is relevant to understand their opinion since it will frame their mode of representation. Therefore, a first aim of our study is to describe the overall belief among parliamentary candidates that MPs from certain social groups are better equipped to represent that particular group. Using the 2009 German Candidate Survey, we look at four social groups: immigrants, women, religious people and East Germans. As such, we include two groups which have been traditionally politically underrepresented (immigrants and women) and two which have not been underrepresented (religious people and East Germans). Secondly, we assess to what extent candidates belonging to one of these social groups are more likely to believe that MPs of their social group are better at representing the interests of citizens from their group. Taking insights from theories on group identity and experiences as a minority group, we anticipate that candidates belonging to social groups with a strong identity and shared values will believe that their interests can be better represented by group members. We also expect this belief in a link between descriptive and substantive representation to translate to other social groups, in particular among those who share the experience of being a political minority. The descriptive results indicate that there is some variety in the belief that social groups are better in representing the interests of their group depending on which group is studied. Overall our results indicate that the link between descriptive and substantive representation gets stronger support for political minority groups than for groups who are generally well represented. Furthermore, our explanatory analyses indicate that political candidates of certain social groups do believe that the interests of their own social group are better represented by a group member: women are more likely than men to believe that women are better in representing the interests of women, immigrants are more likely than non-immigrants to believe that immigrants are better in representing the interests of immigrants. The same holds for East Germans and religious people. This support among candidates for the idea of MPs from certain social groups being better in representing that group, does however only holds for the candidate’s own group, with the exception of women who not only believe that women are better in representing women but also that immigrants are better in representing the interests of immigrants.