That’s a candidate I (don’t) like - Predicting the Acceptance of Minority Members as Political Candidates Within and Across Countries

Diversity is omnipresent in European societies. Nevertheless, most elected heads of state or government in these societies are Christian white middle-aged men (the major exception being Germany, where Angela Merkel is chancellor since 2005). Political candidates that do not fit this prototype frequently face prejudice in their election campaigns. Female candidates are for example confronted with sexism and the loyalty of Muslim candidates to the country is often questioned. In this study we rely on the Eurobarometer 83.4 (2015) survey data to examine which characteristics of political candidates (e.g., gender, sexual identity, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and being handicapped) play a role in the evaluation and acceptance of political candidates in 30 countries. We find considerable variation in the acceptance of political candidates based on these characteristics. Most people feel comfortable with a female politician in the highest political position. People are less comfortable, however, with political candidates who are over 75 years of age, homosexual, or transsexual. For all characteristics, we furthermore find considerable variation across countries, with the intra-class correlation ranging from 3 percent (for acceptance of female candidates) to 17 percent (acceptance of homosexual candidates). We explore what societal factors encourage or hinder the acceptance of political candidates belonging to a minority, taking into account the diversity climate and whether a country has experience with elected politicians with these characteristics. [co-authored with Anette Rohmann, FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany]