Why Aren't They There? ― The Political Representation of Women, Ethnic Groups, and Issue Positions in Legislatures

Why Aren't They There? comparatively analyzes the representation of women over time and presents a critical view of the effectiveness of quotas. Incorporating new research on ethnic groups in legislatures, the text takes a significant step forward in the study of political representation and systematically examines issue positions in eight policy domains. It examines aspects that are not broached in studies focusing solely on a single form of representation. The result is a comprehensive understanding of political representation that leads to significant, policy-relevant insights on electoral engineering.

Didier Ruedin (DPhil, Oxford) is a researcher at the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. He works on various aspects on political representation, including the political representation of women and ethnic groups in national legislatures. His 2009 article on the political representation of ethnic groups in a cross-national perspective won the SNIS International Geneva Award 2010. In 2012, Didier Ruedin was a visiting fellow at the University of Vienna. Other areas of research include the politicization of immigration, and attitudes toward foreigners.