Are minorities in politics held to a higher standard? Experimental & observational evidence from candidate selection

2024/09/03 by Michal Grahn, Theodor Thisell · 1 voice · 5 citations
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Gender Politics and Representation #Media Influence and Politics

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/13501763.2024.2398770

openalex publication_date 2024/09/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02

Abstract

Are candidates from underrepresented demographics in politics held to a higher standard in candidate selection processes? We explore whether women, youths, and immigrants are required to demonstrate a greater commitment to the party line to be deemed suitable for office. Our focus is specifically on loyalty to the party line, a key selection criterion in most political systems. We analyze data from an original conjoint experiment involving 1,300 party selectors from six major political parties in Sweden, along with validated roll-call voting records and renomination data for all Swedish MPs elected between 2002 and 2022. Our findings suggest that Swedish party selectors do not demand greater loyalty from candidates belonging to political outgroups. On the contrary, equally loyal outgroup candidates are at least as appealing to party selectors as their ingroup counterparts, if not more so. This result contributes to debates on political representation and party politics and may also be of interest to practitioners focused on minority empowerment.

Citations

• Competing Principals, Political Institutions, and Party Unity in Legislative Voting
• Race/Ethnicity in Candidate Experiments: a Meta-Analysis and the Case for Shared Identification

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• Success Denied: Social Class and Perceptions of Political Success
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Discussions

• New paper in @jeppjournal.bsky.social! Do minorities in politics face higher standards in candidate recruitment? Theodor Thisell and I study whether more loyalty is expected of women, youth, and immi [bsky, 16 points, 1 comments]

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