The objective of this workshop is to further develop and consolidate knowledge on youth representation in parliaments around four connected areas: a) the conditions that shape the descriptive representation of youth, b) inequalities in access to positions among young representatives, c) the substantive representation of youth, and d) the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation of youth. We maintain a focus on descriptive and substantive representation of young people (under age 40) in parliaments as central concerns while adopting a broader understanding of representation as something that is performed, claimed, negotiated, and contested within parliamentary politics.
The study of youth political representation has developed rapidly, but its importance extends beyond understanding the representation of one demographic group. Bringing age more fully into studies of representation within political science offers leverage on broader questions about political inequality, parliamentary organization, and the relationship between democracy and representation. For representation scholarships age provides a dynamic dimension of political inequality. Unlike other characteristics commonly examined in representation scholarship (gender, race/ethnicity), age changes over the life course. Focusing on age, can help us to understand how inequalities may be temporary for individual politicians but reproduced persistently within political institutions.
Within parliamentary studies, focusing on young political actors shifts attention to where and how representation is produced and negotiated within legislative institutions. Parliamentary scholarship has long demonstrated that influence is organized through party groups, committees, informal relationships, and everyday interactions. Bringing these insights into research on young adult political representation enables us to better understand inequalities and access to power within such institutions.
Additionally, youth representation studies lack a solid understanding of what different forms of representation mean for younger citizens’ relationships to political institutions. Descriptive presence, substantive responsiveness, visible political influence, representative claims, and opportunities for participation may each matter differently for political efficacy, engagement, and trust among young citizens. Thus, examining who becomes representatives, how they access and exert influence, and the extent to which we can link descriptive and substantive representation contributes to broader debates about when representative institutions are experienced as inclusive, responsive, and politically meaningful.
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1: What factors facilitate which young people are nominated/elected to parliaments?
2: What distinguishes young candidates who are elected from those who are not?
3: How do parliaments facilitate/constrain participation, representative activity, and influence?
4: When and how does young people's presence in parliament substantive representation and outcomes?
1: Access and selection: which young adults get nominated and elected to parliament?
2: Routes into politics and the trajectories of young parliamentarians
3: Inequalities in access to parliamentary power, positions, and resources
4: Young parliamentary staff, advisers, and other non-elected parliamentary political actors
5: Descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation of young adults
6: Representative claims, critical actors, and critical acts on behalf of youth
7: When and how presence shapes substantive/symbolic representation and political outcomes
8: Youth representation and its impacts on political efficacy, engagement, and trust
