Double Jeopardy or Multiple Advantage? Intersectionality and Political Representation

This special issue revisits traditional group-based approaches to political representation by examining how multiple advantages and disadvantages interact and multiply in specific settings. The contributions examine how intersections of age, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, nationality, generation and ethnicity influence entrance to elected office and the power elected officials eventually wield. We propose a new intersectional framework for studying the mechanisms that lead to inclusion (advantage) and exclusion (disadvantage) in political representation, and find that (1) similar mechanisms produce different outcomes for different (sub)groups in society, and (2) the effect of identity mixes is contextual and differs across dimensions of representation.