Seeing and Being Seen: Representation in Proportional Systems

Introduction

Political representation links geography and citizens' voices. In recent years, citizens have used their voices to channel their grievances about being left behind. Events such as Trump's election, Brexit, the French Yellow Vests, and the rise of the extreme right across Europe motivated researchers to investigate the causes and consequences of geographic divides in contemporary democracies.

Theoretical Framework

However, most theoretical frameworks examining the interplay between geography and representation are rooted in the political, economic, historical, and sociological experience of the United States. Unlike the U.S., most European democracies employ proportional electoral systems, have strong political parties, stronger redistributive politics, and different urban organizations. Cities are denser, less segregated, and have more public transportation.

Project Motivation

The primary motivation for this project is to break new ground by developing a theoretical framework grounded in the institutional, socioeconomic, and historical trajectories of proportional European democracies. I analyze representation at the level it takes place: the electoral district.

Electoral District Complexity

The complexity of electoral districts in European proportional democracies forces legislators into difficult trade-offs. The project will:

1. Map representation inequalities inside electoral districts.
2. Understand legislators' choices based on their preferences, biases, and partisan constraints.
3. Identify and analyze the implications of legislators' choices on citizens' attitudes and reactions to representation.
4. Create a theoretical and empirical framework to examine representation in the suburbs.

Methodology

SEE will use a comparative and integrative multi-method approach to meet its goals with a sequential integration of cross-sectional observational data, elite and mass survey experiments, and focus groups in a diverse set of six European proportional democracies: Austria, Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.