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Replication Data for: Electoral Discrimination, Party Rationale, and the Underrepresentation of Immigrant-Origin Politicians

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: Electoral Discrimination, Party Rationale, and the Underrepresentation of Immigrant-Origin Politicians
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/EIINMP
 
Creator Auer, Daniel
Portmann, Lea
Tichelbaecker, Thomas
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Immigrants and other minorities are underrepresented in politics in most Western democracies. We argue that strategically acting party gatekeepers who update their nomination strategies based on voter behavior, contribute to this representation gap. Drawing on unique panel data from Swiss local elections, we find that candidates with a “foreign-sounding” name systematically receive not only fewer votes but are also fielded on less promising list positions compared to native candidates. We track candidates across elections and show that this inequality is driven by voter discrimination in previous elections. Our study carries relevance for research on minority candidates by linking different stages in the electoral process and showing how parties indirectly discriminate due to their use of candidate performance information. It also bears practical implications, pointing to avenues how parties can break the cycle of discrimination in the electoral process.
 
Subject Social Sciences
Discrimination
Minority candidates
Local elections
Open list PR
Party gatekeepers
 
Date 2023-06-19
 
Contributor Auer, Daniel
 
Source EVS. 2021. European Values Study. Accessed January 25, 2022. europeanvaluesstudy.eu/



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Portmann, Lea, and Nenad Stojanovic. 2022. “Are Immigrant-Origin Candidates Penalized in Virtue of Ingroup Favoritism or Outgroup Hostility?” Comparative Political Studies 55 (1): 154–186.