Perceptions of Political Representation: Minority Groups and their Representation in German Political Institutions

That the proportion of marginalized minority groups in political institutions lacks behind their share in the wider population is an established problem, as the political underrepresentation of women, working class people, and people with immigrant origin is known to impact political agenda setting and policies. Besides some successes in diversifying leadership positions, gaps of descriptive representation in political institutions persist. Empirical research in Germany tends to focus on descriptive representation and its effect on substantive representation or electoral behavior. Considering recent developments in theories of political representation stressing perceived representation, we adopt a citizen’s perspective on political representation and focus on how citizens perceive political representation. Using newly conducted survey data our primary goal is to assess how the German living population feel represented by political institutions. Therefore, we analyze how people in Germany perceive their representation on the national level. We compare the results between politically underrepresented group such as women, working class members and people with immigration origin. Furthermore, we explore how those perceptions of (not) being sufficiently represented affect political attitudes namely political trust and legitimacy of democracy.