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Evidence suggests that as public opinion towards immigration becomes more negative, so the descriptive representation of ethnic minority groups is increasingly restricted. Recently, some initial research into the causal mechanism hinted that this effect is driven by patterns of candidacy. This suggests that political parties are creating an 'ethnic penalty' of their own in the selection stage. This paper investigates the relationship between patterns of candidacy, party strategy, and public opinion in Great Britain from 1997 to 2019, and proposes that 'punitive parties' are strongly responsible for shaping the representational outcomes of minority groups. I find support for earlier suggestions that parties are increasingly likely to place ethnic minority candidates away from 'winnable' contests as anti-immigrant hostility rises. These findings are important for our conceptions of ethnic penalties, of party behaviour in selection processes, and for the study and cause of improving political representation.

Evidence suggests that as public opinion towards immigration becomes more negative, so the descriptive representation of ethnic minority groups is increasingly restricted. Recently, some initial research into the causal mechanism hinted that this effect is driven by patterns of candidacy. This suggests that political parties are creating an 'ethnic penalty' of their own in the selection stage. This paper investigates the relationship between patterns of candidacy, party strategy, and public opinion in Great Britain from 1997 to 2019, and proposes that 'punitive parties' are strongly responsible for shaping the representational outcomes of minority groups. I find support for earlier suggestions that parties are increasingly likely to place ethnic minority candidates away from 'winnable' contests as anti-immigrant hostility rises. These findings are important for our conceptions of ethnic penalties, of party behaviour in selection processes, and for the study and cause of improving political representation.

AbstractEthnic minority groups have been and remain underrepresented in the British political system. However, we know little about how white immigrant origin groups—who share outgroup status based on non-native history, but differ to ethnic minority groups in terms of not having minority status—compare. Further, contemporary representational study also must concern itself with the quality, not just presence, of representation provided. This research therefore longitudinally compares the access to parliamentary roles for ethnic minority, white immigrant, and white British MPs. It finds that visibility of non-native status holds back descriptive representation—based on both appearance and non-British sounding names.

For incumbents to be accountable for their issue stances, voters must sanction incumbents whose positions are "out of step" with their own. We test the electoral accountability of British legislators for their stance on Brexit. We find that there is very limited issue accountability. Individuals who disagreed with their representative's stance on Brexit were 3 percentage points less likely to vote for them. The aggregate consequences of these individual effects are limited. A one-standard-deviation increase in the proportion of constituents agreeing with their incumbent's Brexit stance is associated with an increase of 0.53 percentage points in incumbent vote share. These effects are one and a half times larger when the main challenger has a different Brexit stance to the incumbent. A follow-up survey of Members of Parliament (MPs) shows that MPs' estimates of the effects of congruence are similar in magnitude. Our findings suggest that issue accountability is conditional in nature and limited in magnitude even for an issue such as Brexit, which should be maximally amenable to such effects.

Abstract
In recent decades, representation of ethnic minorities increased significantly across Europe, while concurrently many political parties moved to the right on multiculturalism and immigration, a seeming paradox. We explain it by arguing that often it is the same parties that move to the right and simultaneously increase representation. They use this dual strategy in an attempt to positionally converge to the median voter, where the increased minority representation acts as a reputational shield to prevent allegations of intolerance. Looking at parliaments of eight European countries between 1990 and 2015, we find that parties that shifted to the right in response to a public mood swing to the right are indeed significantly more likely to bring more ethnic minority politicians into parliament. This has important implications for the literature on descriptive representation and party platform change.

Using political claims analysis on 1,000 articles from five national newspapers (Daily Mail, The Sun, The Times, The Guardian, and Daily Mirror), this article demonstrates that press coverage of the financial crisis, recession, and austerity in the United Kingdom between 2007‐14 drew heavily on a neoliberal discourse. Political, market, and civil society actors discussed the impact of hard times on people using a reductionist neoliberal narrative, framing people as "economic actors" and consistently underplaying any social or political traits. By examining communicative, rather than coordinative, discourse this research expands the focus of previous studies which have examined the embeddedness of ideology in society, and highlights potential links to studies of citizen participation and mobilization.Related Articles in this Special Issue

Cinalli, Manlio, and
Marco Giugni. 2016. "" Politics & Policy 44 (): 427–446. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12159/abstract


Giugni, Marco, and
Maria T. Grasso. 2016. "." Politics & Policy 44 (): 447–472. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12157/abstract


English, Patrick,
Maria T. Grasso,
Barbara Buraczynska,
Sotirios Karampampas, and
Luke Temple. 2016. "." Politics & Policy 44 (): 577–603. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12160/abstract
Related Media
. 2015. "Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution ‐ Interview with Wendy Brown." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUGSjd_OoQ0

. 2016. "Words Matter: Deconstructing 'Welfare Dependency' in the UK – Paul Michael Garrett." http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/%EF%BB%BFwords-matter-deconstructing-welfare-dependency-in-the-uk/

Since the 1980s, Britain's two largest political parties have been converging ever closer on the political spectrum, in line with a Downsian model of two party majoritarian systems. While both Labour and the Conservatives have been moving toward consensus, we investigate the extent to which the recent financial crisis, understood as a critical juncture, interrupted this movement. Using a "fuzzy set" ideal type analysis with claims‐making data, we assess whether or not we can detect any signs of this consensus breaking down as a result of the crisis and the events which followed. Our results show that despite this most critical event, consensus was maintained as we found both parties adopting very similar framing and narrating strategies on the economic crisis in their public discourse. The study concludes that the shared discursive framing and narrating between both parties on the crisis demonstrates a continued Thatcherite, neoliberal consensus in British politics.Related Articles in this Special Issue

Temple, Luke,
Maria T. Grasso,
Barbara Buraczynska,
Sotirios Karampampas, and
Patrick English. 2016. ." Politics & Policy 44 (): 553–576. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12161/abstract


Giugni, Marco, and
Maria T. Grasso. 2016. "." Politics & Policy 44 (): 447–472. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12157/abstract


Lahusen, Christian,
Maria Kousis,
Johannes Kiess, and
Maria Paschou. 2016. "." Politics & Policy 44 (): 525–552. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12162/abstract
Related MediaITV News. 2011. "Conservative Party Conference: Cameron's Debt Promise." YouTube. https://youtu.be/vJ9RfDr6DVgFinancial Times. 2014. "Miliband Toughens Stance on Deficit." YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVY0t_FSN4s