Although the literature devoted to political representation and political participation is quite large, little attention has been paid to the connection between these two pillars of democratic process. As a test of the new analytical model of the participation-representation linkage this paper asks whether unequal rates of participation on young adults have an impact on the quality of policy representation of those same groups of citizens. Through a multilevel analysis of the quality of policy representation of young adults in 27 European democracies, I demonstrate that an increase in inequality of political participation has a negative effect on the quality of young adults policy representation. According the the theory of democratic linkages I also test whether specific country level party system characteristics enhance or ameliorate this negative relationship. Results are are not in accordance with previous theories of the impact of institutional characteristics on the quality of representation. Higher levels of in-congruence are found to be a function of higher levels of electoral volatility and larger change in the number of electoral parties, which approximate less stable party systems. Moreover longevity of democratic practices does not appear to have an impact on analyzed relationship.
