Group Identities in Democratic Representation

The papers of this panel investigate the role of social and political identities in several aspects of democratic representation. The papers analyze the political sociology of identities in their role for democratic competition and responsiveness of political elites. At the same time they shed light on the questions of how political elites and public policy shape identities. The paper by Sczepanski analyzes how political elites in the EU try to actively shape the links between group identities and public policies. Abou-Chadi et al. study how political parties make group identities salient to increase their support. Haas et al. in turn show how the erosion of non-cooperation norms with the far right shapes their support. The paper of Hummel documents how transgender people in Florida can affirm their identities while facing state-sponsored discrimination. López Ortega et al. analyze how a lack of knowledge of political history is a driver of queerphobia. Taken together, the papers contribute to our understanding of the interplay of group identities and the behavior of political elites in liberal democracies. The papers are based on a broad set of methodological approaches ranging from expert and qualitative in-depth interviews to survey experiments and difference-in-difference designs. They focus on countries such as the US, Spain, Germany, the UK and the EU as a political system.