Political representation in communities and legislatures

Political representation boosts political participation of underrepresented communities

A recent paper studied the effect of political representation on underrepresented communities in Mexico. To determine the causal effect of political representation, researchers analyzed a natural experiment in which a Mexican political party selects candidates via lottery. When citizens from underrepresented communities were randomly selected to have a representative from their own community, it boosted their long-term voter turnout, political interest, and feelings of political empowerment. Importantly, it is not enough for the representatives to share their constituents’ social and demographic traits – the representatives must come from the communities they represent.

Female cabinet ministers amplify the voice of female legislators

A paper analyzed the effect of female cabinet ministers on female legislators. Leveraging over-time variation in the gender of cabinet ministers, it found that female legislators are more active in debates on issues within a female cabinet minister’s portfolio. Beyond mere debate participation, the paper uses novel text analysis methods to show that female cabinet ministers (1) boost female legislators’ influence on their colleagues and (2) are significantly more responsive than male cabinet ministers to the speeches of female legislators. This study shows how putting members of politically underrepresented groups in positions of political authority enhances other members of that group.