190513 - Measuring support for better political representation of women and minorities

Joint seminar CERI-CEE "Social Sciences in question: The leading epistemological and methodological controversies of our time": Measuring support for better political representation of women and minorities"

Monday 13 May 2019, 12.30-2 pm, Sciences Po, Salle Jean Monnet, 56 rue Jacob, 75007 Paris

Are opinion polls reliable? Survey-embedded experiments tell us it depends on how the questions are framed, and how informed the public is about the issue. Hilde Coffé and Marion Reiser use them to explore the support for measures increasing the political representation of women and ethnic minorities in Germany.  Testing first what respondents know of the proportion of women and minorities in the Bundestag, then providing some with the correct information, some not, they show that political knowledge matters.

Speaker: Hilde Coffé (University of Bath) main research interests include public opinion, political behaviour and political representation. She recently published "Taking the case of Germany. Political candidates’ attitudes towards group representation", The Journal of Legislative Studies, 24(3), 2018, p. 272-297 (with Marion Reiser) and “Representing Diversity in Mixed Electoral Systems: The Case of New Zealand”, Parliamentary Affairs, 71 (3), 2018, p. 603–632 (with Fiona Barker).

Discussion: Réjane Sénac (Sciences Po, CEVIPOF, CNRS) studies equality policies, especially those promoting parity and diversity. She recently published the chapter "France: The Republic Tested by Parity » of the Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights (2019) and "Explaining Gender Gaps in Legislative Committees", Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 2018, 39(3), p.310-335 (with  Rainbow Murray).

The session will be chaired by Nonna Mayer, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS

Contacts: samy.cohen@sciencespo.fr et nonna.mayer@sciencespo.fr

Compulsory registration - For the external people to Sciences Po: You will have to arrive 10 minutes before the beginning of the seminar and to provide you with your identity papers)
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Picture credit: 360b_shutterstock