Parliamentary Questions as Instruments of Substantive Representation: Visible Minorities in the UK House of Commons, 2005–10

Does the growing descriptive representation of minority-ethnic legislators in the British House of Commons have any implications for the substantive representation of minority-related issues in the UK Parliament? This study is based on a data set of over 16,000 parliamentary questions tabled by 50 British backbench Members of Parliament (MPs) in the 2005–10 Parliament, including the 16 immigrant-origin MPs with a ‘visible-minority’ background. Based on a series of multivariate models, it is found that all British MPs sampled for this study – irrespective of their ethnic status – respond to electoral incentives arising from the socio-demographic composition of their constituencies: minority and non-minority MPs alike ask more questions relating to minority concerns, if they represent constituencies with a high share of non-White residents. Controlling for that general effect, however, MPs with a visible-minority status do tend to ask significantly more questions about ethnic diversity and equality issues.

[1]  W. Buchanan,et al.  The Role of the Representative: Some Empirical Observations on the Theory of Edmund Burke , 1959, American Political Science Review.

[2]  H. Pitkin.  The Concept of Representation , 1969 .

[3]  D. Hill,et al.  The Political Consequences of Electoral Laws , 1969 .

[4]  A. King.  Modes of Executive-Legislative Relations: Great Britain, France, and West Germany , 1976 .

[5]  Kaare W. Strøm,et al.  A Behavioral Theory of Competitive Political Parties , 1990 .

[6]  P. Norton,et al.  Back from Westminster: British Members of Parliament and Their Constituents , 1993 .

[7]  C. Swain.  Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress , 1993 .

[8]  Donald D. Searing.  Westminster’s World: Understanding Political Roles , 1994 .

[9]  Warren E. Miller,et al.  Constituency Influence in Congress , 1963, American Political Science Review.

[10]  Herbert Döring.  Parliaments and Majority Rule in Western Europe , 1995 .

[11]  Kenny J. Whitby.  The Color of Representation: Congressional Behavior and Black Interests , 1997 .

[12]  M. McDermott.  Race and Gender Cues in Low-Information Elections , 1998 .

[13]  W. Müller,et al.  Policy, Office, or Votes?: Political Parties and Hard Choices , 1999 .

[14]  Jane J. Mansbridge.  Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent "Yes" , 1999, The Journal of Politics.

[15]  Jane J. Mansbridge.  Rethinking Representation , 2003, American Political Science Review.

[16]  Robert Blackburn,et al.  Griffith and Ryle on Parliament : Functions, Practice and Procedures , 2003 .

[17]  J. G. B. Powell.  POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS , 2004 .

[18]  Sarah Childs.  New Labour's Women MPs: Women Representing Women , 2004 .

[19]  Philip Norton,et al.  Parliament in British politics , 2005 .

[20]  T. Gschwend,et al.  Individualised Constituency Campaigns in Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: Candidates in the 2005 German Elections , 2008 .

[21]  Christian Collet.  Minority Candidates, Alternative Media, and Multiethnic America: Deracialization or Toggling? , 2008, Perspectives on Politics.

[22]  J. Strömbäck.  Selective Professionalisation of Political Campaigning: A Test of the Party-Centred Theory of Professionalised Campaigning in the Context of the 2006 Swedish Election , 2009 .

[23]  B. Rasch.  Opposition Parties, Electoral Incentives and the Control of Government Ministers: Parliamentary Questioning in Norway , 2009 .

[24]  Federico Russo,et al.  Parliamentary Questioning in 17 European Parliaments: Some Steps towards Comparison , 2010, The Impact of Legislatures.

[25]  Shane Martin.  Using Parliamentary Questions to Measure Constituency Focus: An Application to the Irish Case , 2011 .