Why Do Niche Parties Engage in Strategic Descriptive Representation?

• In Event: Interesting Approaches to Gender Representation

Abstract

Growing evidence in comparative politics indicates that parties, particularly those on the radical right, elect more women to parliament when electorally struggling. While a significant finding, the focus of previous studies on national-level outcomes makes it difficult to identify the mechanism at play. I argue that parties engage in strategic descriptive representation to alter voters’ perceptions of their ideology and enlarge their electorates. The strategic use of candidates' gender should vary according to the ideology of parties and districts: struggling radical-right parties would include female candidates in left-wing districts to be perceived as more moderate; whereas the same incentives would push radical-left parties to nominate men in right-wing districts. I test these claims with a study of the French legislative elections between 2008 and 2022. I use census data to proxy districts' ideology, which I then combine with data on district legislative candidates. Findings confirm my claims, suggesting that both party and district ideology are important in explaining the numerical presence of women and men in candidate polls. Niche parties are strategic when it comes to the places where they nominate men and women.

Author

• Gonzalo Di Landro, Rice University