Paths to Political Representation of People with Disabilities

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Abstract

How is access to elections, parties, and office for people with disabilities designed in today’s democracies? Which institutional structures allow for or hinder political interests of people with disabilities to find their way into decision making bodies? This panel sets out to offer answers on these questions. Past research demonstrates that barriers exist for people with disabilities who want to run for office. Scholars repeatedly confirmed that people with disabilities and people with mental health conditions have lower turnout. Yet, we know little about how parties and parliaments adapt their inner workings and rules in order to increase the numbers of people with disabilities and people with mental health issues among party voters, party members, and MPs.

This panel brings together an international group of early career and established scholars who analyze gates of access for political representation of people with disabilities. They draw on various democracies, institutions, and methods to investigate access to politics for people with disabilities. Raykowski analyzes amendments on electoral laws that (dis)enfranchise people with intellectual disabilities to explain what makes states grant voting rights after a long-standing history of disenfranchisement. Fabry et al. leverage data gathered in the German Bundestag to show that substantive representation of disability is driven by very few active MPs concerned with that matter and by women independent of their political leaning. Kolpinskaya inquires if work spaces in the UK House of Commons accommodate disability through interviews with MPs, staff, and the analysis of parliamentary speeches and bills. Evans conducts a comparative analysis on whether and how established parties in six democracies consider disability in their party constitution, recruitment, and working group structures. Thereby, the panel interrogates multiple institutional intersections at which political representation of disability takes place or is obstructed.

Sub Unit

• General Paper and Panel Submissions

Individual Presentations

• Causes of Enfranchisement of People with Intellectual Disabilities - Moritz Raykowski, Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Societies/ University of Cologne

• Disability and Political Parties: A Comparative Analysis - Elizabeth J. Evans, Goldsmiths, University of London

• Examining Disability Representation in the German Parliament: A Mixed-Method Approach - Vivien Fabry, Free University Berlin; Liza Mugge, University of Amsterdam; Michael Hunklinger

• Examining Accessibility of Debating Chambers and Committee for Disabled Members of the UK House of Commons - Ekaterina Kolpinskaya, University of Exeter

Chair

• Monika L. McDermott Fordham University

Discussants

• Stefanie Reher University of Strathclyde

• Ioana Cerasella Chis University of Glasgow