Research project Minority and Female Politicians as Role Models
Drawing on the notion that marginalized groups may become empowered when the political system signals inclusiveness, this project investigates whether visible political leadership by minorities and women can enhance political engagement among these groups.
While previous studies have purported to test the “empowerment-effect” of women´s representation and of minority representation in the U.S., these studies face a difficult methodological obstacle: any observed correlation between visible political leadership by marginalized groups and the general political engagement of that same group may be due to reverse causation or to some third factor that the researcher has not accounted for. In this collaborative project between Swedish and American researchers, we aim to overcome the problems encountered in previous research by making use of a novel tecnhique. Specifically, we will conduct large-scale vignette survey experiments in the United States and Sweden to assess the effect of diverse political leadership on the political empowerment of women and minorities. Vignettes (descriptions of politicians or political assemblies in text and/or picture format) will be randomly assigned to respondents and will vary in how inclusive they signal the political system to be. The "empowerment-effect" will then be measured by relating these vignettes to respondents’ answers to a number of questions relating to political interest, efficacy and intentions to participate.