Party gatekeeping of working-class candidates under closed-list proportional representation

IF 2.7 2区社会学 Q1 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Electoral Studies Pub Date : 2026-02-01 Epub Date: 2025-11-19 DOI:10.1016/j.electstud.2025.103021

Sania Akter , Yann Kerevel , Austin S. Matthews

{"title":"Party gatekeeping of working-class candidates under closed-list proportional representation","authors":"Sania Akter , Yann Kerevel , Austin S. Matthews","doi":"10.1016/j.electstud.2025.103021","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Do political parties discriminate against working-class candidates? Several studies indicate political parties may disadvantage working-class candidates by marginalizing them during the nomination process. In this study, we examine one way in which party leaders may marginalize working-class candidates through list placement under closed-list proportional representation (PR). Using the occupational background of candidates from national parliamentary elections in Moldova, and national and sub-national elections in Germany, we find working-class candidates are systematically ranked lower on PR lists, even after accounting for other known factors that influence list placement. We also explore heterogeneous class effects by party and sex, and examine possible mechanisms to explain workers' lower list placement. Our results suggest part of the reason for workers’ disadvantage is due to their lack of political experience and the organizational weakness of unions. This study finds parties disadvantage candidates based on their class background which further contributes to their underrepresentation in legislatures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48188,"journal":{"name":"Electoral Studies","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 103021"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Electoral Studies","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379425001271","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/11/19 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Do political parties discriminate against working-class candidates? Several studies indicate political parties may disadvantage working-class candidates by marginalizing them during the nomination process. In this study, we examine one way in which party leaders may marginalize working-class candidates through list placement under closed-list proportional representation (PR). Using the occupational background of candidates from national parliamentary elections in Moldova, and national and sub-national elections in Germany, we find working-class candidates are systematically ranked lower on PR lists, even after accounting for other known factors that influence list placement. We also explore heterogeneous class effects by party and sex, and examine possible mechanisms to explain workers' lower list placement. Our results suggest part of the reason for workers’ disadvantage is due to their lack of political experience and the organizational weakness of unions. This study finds parties disadvantage candidates based on their class background which further contributes to their underrepresentation in legislatures.

查看原文本刊更多论文

在封闭名单比例代表制下，工人阶级候选人的政党把关

政党是否歧视工人阶级候选人？几项研究表明，政党可能会在提名过程中边缘化工人阶级候选人，从而使他们处于不利地位。在本研究中，我们考察了政党领导人在封闭名单比例代表制（PR）下通过名单放置来边缘化工人阶级候选人的一种方式。利用摩尔多瓦全国议会选举候选人的职业背景，以及德国全国和地方选举候选人的职业背景，我们发现，即使在考虑了影响名单位置的其他已知因素之后，工人阶级候选人在公关名单上的系统性排名也较低。我们还探讨了政党和性别的异质阶级效应，并研究了解释工人排名较低的可能机制。我们的研究结果表明，工人处于不利地位的部分原因是由于他们缺乏政治经验和工会的组织弱点。本研究发现政党基于阶级背景对候选人不利，这进一步导致了他们在立法机构中的代表性不足。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Electoral Studies POLITICAL SCIENCE-

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

13.00%

发文量

审稿时长

67 days

期刊介绍： Electoral Studies is an international journal covering all aspects of voting, the central act in the democratic process. Political scientists, economists, sociologists, game theorists, geographers, contemporary historians and lawyers have common, and overlapping, interests in what causes voters to act as they do, and the consequences. Electoral Studies provides a forum for these diverse approaches. It publishes fully refereed papers, both theoretical and empirical, on such topics as relationships between votes and seats, and between election outcomes and politicians reactions; historical, sociological, or geographical correlates of voting behaviour; rational choice analysis of political acts, and critiques of such analyses.