Special Representation of Non-Resident Citizens. A Global Survey

Currently, more than a dozen countries worldwide reserve seats in their national or regional legislatures for non-resident citizens, most but not all of whom are emigrants. Over the last decade, a few studies have investigated special representation of citizens residing abroad. This work has investigated the institutional variation of special representation, including the number of seats and overseas districts, and its effects on spatial authority as well as its substantive representation in national parliaments. This chapter is the first study to explore the provision of special representation considering the overall rules regulating the overseas franchise. Drawing on an original dataset, we map the prevalence of special representation of non-resident citizens around the world and over time. For countries with special representation, we additionally delve into the conditions that shape the voting as well as candidacy rights—conditions relating to eligibility and access. With this data, we explore different change scenarios for countries with special representation, based on a combination between policy restriction versus policy innovation across elections. Lastly, we explore patterns in the co-occurrence of other electoral rules with special representation. This work sheds light on the dynamic design of overseas voting rights in cases with special representation.