Are Immigrant-Origin Candidates Penalized Due to Ingroup Favoritism or Outgroup Hostility?

Abstract

An influential explanation for the persistent political underrepresentation of minorities in elected office is that minority candidates are discriminated against by voters of the dominant ethnic group. We argue, however, for the need to distinguish between two forms of discrimination: ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility. We measure the impact of each by using an extensive data set drawn from Swiss elections, where voters can cast both positive and negative preference votes for candidates. Our results show that immigrant-origin candidates with non-Swiss names incur an electoral disadvantage because they receive more negative preference votes than candidates with typically Swiss names. But we also find that minority candidates face a second disadvantage: voters discriminate in favor of majority candidates by allocating them more positive preference votes. These two forms of electoral discrimination are critically related to a candidate’s party, whereas the impact of the specific outgroup to which a minority candidate belongs is less pronounced than expected.

The surge in women's representation in the 2019 Swiss federal elections

“…Doing justice to this issue would require additional theory and analyses that are beyond the scope of this article. However, we encourage researchers to address this question, for example by building on Portmann and Stojanović (2019, 2021), who show in the Swiss context that candidates with foreign names receive fewer votes. Second, we considered the role of ambition and the need for women to be asked before they decide to run as candidates in the context of the Helvetia ruft!…”

Nomination trade-offs: How context affects political parties’ strategies to nominate immigrant-origin candidates

“…For this reason, visible immigrant traits also play a minor role in the Swiss context. In addition, a consecutive study confirms that 85% of the immigrant-origin candidates identified with this strategy indeed selfindicated to have an immigration background (Portmann and Stojanović, 2021). This strategy to identify immigrant-origin candidates doesn't allow differentiating the extent of a candidate's immigration experience, i.e.…”

“…For this reason, visible immigrant traits also play a minor role in the Swiss context. In addition, a consecutive study confirms that 85% of the immigrant-origin candidates identified with this strategy indeed selfindicated to have an immigration background (Portmann and Stojanovic ´, 2021).…”

Do political duos diminish discriminatory voter preferences? Evidence from a combined conjoint experiment

“…5 The (dis)advantage experienced by political candidates from other traditionally excluded groups has recently received attention. Despite optimistic results for some of these groups (Carnes and Lupu, 2016; Reher, 2021), the reality is less positive for candidates belonging to ethnic, sexual and gender minorities (Everitt and Horvath, 2021; Magni and Reynolds, 2021; Martin and Blinder, 2020; Portmann and Stojanović, 2021). Magni and Reynolds (2021) find that lesbians, gays and especially transgender candidates suffer an electoral penalty in three experiments in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand.…”