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Inclusive Democracies? Conceptualising and Measuring the Descriptive and Substantive Political Representation of Under-represented Groups in Democratic Parliaments

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Inclusive Democracies? Conceptualising and Measuring the Descriptive and Substantive Political Representation of Under-represented Groups in Democratic Parliaments (InclusiveParl)

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The InclusiveParl project studies the connection between the descriptive political representation (the “presence) of seven marginalized groups (women, youth, working-class people, ethnic and migrant minorities, religious minorities, people with disabilities and LGBTI+ individuals) and their substantive political representation (the inclusion of their “interests” and demands in parliamentary activity and the policy agenda) in the national parliaments of four countries: France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. The InclusiveParl project analyses descriptive representation through a careful methodology that is based on the visibility of both self-definition and ascriptive elements of parliamentarians that make claims of their descriptive representation of any given group legitimate. Substantive representation is approached through the analysis of written questions submitted by legislators to the Executive, as well as the participation in the legislative process for selected pieces of legislation that directly affect the interests of given groups.
Understanding the visible representation gaps in democratic parliaments, a discussion with Laura Morales and Claire Vincent-Mory on the InclusiveParl project.