Modelling the Perfect Politician – How Marginalized Citizens Want to be Represented in Politics

How and under which conditions do citizens with multiple politically marginalized identities feel represented in politics? Many established democracies witness significant shares of citizens that are distrustful towards politics and that evaluate politicians as being detached from the social sphere. This finding is particularly pronounced among members of politically underrepresented groups. In this paper, we therefore analyze how marginalized citizens want to be represented in politics and how the traits and behaviors of politicians affect the beliefs of citizens about politics. To shed light on these questions, the paper applies an innovative empirical approach. In an original survey fielded in Switzerland, Germany and the UK, we use a visualized survey tool, in which respondents interact with fictitious politicians. In the tool, respondents model an ideal politician by whom they would feel represented the best in politics. In a first step, respondents are asked to take decisions on politicians’ descriptive characteristics involving age, gender, social class, ethnicity, and migration background. In a subsequent step, respondents are choosing which kind of activity the politician should undertake. In particular, respondents can decide whether the politician should engage in the substantive representation of specific group interests (women, young people, workers, POCs, people with migration background), spend time with voters in the constituency, or meet with interest group representatives. The results will show whether marginalized citizens just want to see more politicians who look like them in order to feel represented, whether they would rather like to see their interests being voiced in the political process, or whether it is the combination of both, meaning that a descriptive representative engages in the substantive representation of group interests. Using an intersectional approach, we are particularly interested in variations within and between different groups to find out whether citizens with specific combinations of marginalized identities are more likely to demand descriptive and/or substantive representation of their political perspectives.