Contested representation: The effect of threat experiences on descriptive and substantive representation on the municipal level in Germany

Representative democracy is associated with the normative notion that different societal groups should be adequately represented. Yet, despite contestations being considered an essential aspect of democratic changes and challenges within an emerging ‘Post-Migrant Society’ (Foroutan 2019), it is to be expected that the representation of certain groups faces particular challenges and that some experience more threats than others. However, threat experiences that representatives are confronted with do not just endanger the democratic political order as such. Building on the literature on incivility, we draw conceptually on an understanding of threats against politicians as an extreme form of incivility (Jamieson et al. 2017), as there are also effects of threats on the quality of democracy. By analysing the effects of threats on descriptive and substantive representation (Pitkin 1967), we explore a salient aspect of polarisation and democratic representation and present findings based on a novel dataset. An online survey we conducted in summer 2022 is the basis for empirical findings. The study (2.164 cases) has a deliberate focus on the local level: The municipal level is considered more accessible to groups that tend to be underrepresented in national parliaments (Tolley 2011). However, at least in the German context, studies conducted a decade ago do not support this finding (Schönwälder 2011; Eder et al. 2016) and there is no recent empirical data on this assumption. To gain recent insights, we conducted an online survey of all local elected officials in German major cities (≥ 100.000 residents). The focus of the study is to learn about officials’ understanding of their own representative function with regard to certain descriptive characteristics, and the individual perception as well as effects of potential and experienced threats faced in the course of the exercise of public office. Since an exclusive focus on ethnic classifications is analytically too narrow, it is not to be assumed that only migrant politicians or those who are perceived as such are confronted with these kinds of antagonisms. In terms of representation, it is thus primarily categories of inequality within the triad of ethnicity, gender, and class that are of particular significance. To this end, two closely related research questions will be addressed: (1) Are local politicians with certain descriptive characteristics more likely to experience threats? (2) Does such contestation reinforce existing inequalities in the representation of certain groups? The results show that incivility is widespread. However, gender-specific threats are of particular concern, as women are more likely to be subjected to them. Furthermore, we find minor effects of threats on descriptive representation, but significant negative effects on the substantive representation of women, people with a migration background, and members of lower classes. Our contribution thus provides new insights on how the contested pattern of representation challenges the representative role of already underrepresented groups.