“…In theorizing the politics of presence, parties are often conceptualized as gatekeepers to representation (Jensenius 2016;Mügge 2016;Tolley 2019;Van Trappen 2021;Van Trappen, Vandeleene, and Wauters 2021). To some extent, the data bear this out, but not for all groups.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Thus, there are three main points of selection: oneself (to emerge as an aspirant), one’s party (to be selected as a candidate), and one’s voters (to be elected as a legislator). Figure 1. Legislative recruitment process. Adapted from Matland (1999, 2005) and Van Trappen, Vandeleene, and Wauters (2021)…”
Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Legislative recruitment process. Adapted from Matland (1999, 2005) and Van Trappen, Vandeleene, and Wauters (2021)…”
Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…First, candidates must be eligible for office, which usually includes criteria related to age, residency, and citizenship. Second, they must aspire to office and put themselves forward, usually in a primary for Matland (1999Matland ( , 2005 and Van Trappen, Vandeleene, and Wauters (2021) the party's nomination. Third, they must win the primary to become the nominated candidate for their party.…”
Election to office is shaped by a series of decisions made by prospective candidates, parties, and voters. These choices determine who emerges and is ultimately selected to run, and each decision point either expands or limits the possibilities for more diverse representation. Studies of women candidates have established an important theoretical and empirical basis for understanding legislative recruitment. This study asks how these patterns differ when race and intersectionality are integrated into the analyses. Focusing on more than 800 political aspirants in Canada, I show that although white and racialized women aspire to political office at roughly the same rates, their experiences diverge at the point of party selection. White men remain the preferred candidates, and parties’ efforts to diversify politics have mostly benefited white women. I argue that a greater emphasis on the electoral trajectories of racialized women and men is needed.
“…In theorizing the politics of presence, parties are often conceptualized as gatekeepers to representation (Jensenius 2016;Mügge 2016;Tolley 2019;Van Trappen 2021;Van Trappen, Vandeleene, and Wauters 2021). To some extent, the data bear this out, but not for all groups.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Thus, there are three main points of selection: oneself (to emerge as an aspirant), one’s party (to be selected as a candidate), and one’s voters (to be elected as a legislator). Figure 1. Legislative recruitment process. Adapted from Matland (1999, 2005) and Van Trappen, Vandeleene, and Wauters (2021)…”
Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Legislative recruitment process. Adapted from Matland (1999, 2005) and Van Trappen, Vandeleene, and Wauters (2021)…”
Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…First, candidates must be eligible for office, which usually includes criteria related to age, residency, and citizenship. Second, they must aspire to office and put themselves forward, usually in a primary for Matland (1999Matland ( , 2005 and Van Trappen, Vandeleene, and Wauters (2021) the party's nomination. Third, they must win the primary to become the nominated candidate for their party.…”
Election to office is shaped by a series of decisions made by prospective candidates, parties, and voters. These choices determine who emerges and is ultimately selected to run, and each decision point either expands or limits the possibilities for more diverse representation. Studies of women candidates have established an important theoretical and empirical basis for understanding legislative recruitment. This study asks how these patterns differ when race and intersectionality are integrated into the analyses. Focusing on more than 800 political aspirants in Canada, I show that although white and racialized women aspire to political office at roughly the same rates, their experiences diverge at the point of party selection. White men remain the preferred candidates, and parties’ efforts to diversify politics have mostly benefited white women. I argue that a greater emphasis on the electoral trajectories of racialized women and men is needed.
“…Third , applying classic literature on candidate selection to the study of immigrant representation and in contrast to previous research, this paper suggests that parties not only use the nomination of immigrant-origin candidates per se as a signal of immigrant inclusion but also their list position. These findings are of political importance, given recent evidence advancing that advantageous list positions of immigrant-origin candidates improves immigrant political representation importantly (Van Trappen et al, 2021). Fourth , the construction and use of a new dataset on municipal elections in Switzerland empirically adds to the literature as it has enabled and provided first empirical evidence of these new theoretical contributions.…”
Political parties in Western democracies with large immigrant populations have become increasingly interested in nominating immigrant-origin candidates. This paper investigates how contextual factors explain parties’ effort of immigrant representation. I argue that nominations of immigrant-origin candidates are shaped by parties’ strategic calculations weighing out potential vote gains among immigrant-origin voters compared to a potential native backlash. I contend that alien enfranchisement and liberal naturalization policies provide decisive incentives to nominate immigrant-origin candidates. In contrast, economic insecurity implies potential material threat perceptions generating a native backlash against immigrants, reducing the nomination of immigrant-origin candidates. Using a novel dataset on candidates in Switzerland, the analysis reveals that the political and economic contexts indeed determine the number of immigrant-origin candidates and their ballot position, particularly those of non-Western origin. These findings have significant implications for our understanding of strategic behaviors of political parties and the promotion of immigrant representation.
Atypical political candidates, such as those from ethnic, racial and immigration (ERI) minorities (vs. majority), are more likely to be chosen for hard‐to‐win seats than easy‐to‐win seats, a phenomenon known as the political glass cliff. This research aimed to uncover how the ERI status of decision makers played a role in this process. We hypothesised the emergence of a glass cliff pattern, that is, the preference for an ERI minority candidate over an ERI majority candidate for a hard‐to‐win seat, particularly among ERI minority participants, which are likely to perceive greater electoral potential in the ERI minority candidate compared to majority participants. Across two scenario‐based experiments (Study 1: N = 264; Study 2: N = 375), ERI minority and majority participants played the role of political party leaders and made decisions regarding candidate nominations either in easy‐to‐win or in hard‐to‐win electoral districts. In Study 1, ERI minority participants, but not ERI majority participants, were more likely to choose an ERI minority (vs. majority) candidate for hard‐to‐win seats. Moreover, ERI minority participants made stronger attributions of change potential, competence and communion to ERI minority (vs. majority) candidates, suggesting that intra‐minority solidarity could play a role in their choice. Although this result did not replicate in Study 2, exploratory analyses revealed a consistent glass cliff pattern among ERI minority men in both studies. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.
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