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Based on the German Longitudinal Election Study (2016), we explain citizens' support for measures to increase women's descriptive representation in parliament. Despite women's underrepresentation, we find little support for positive action measures, and in particular for legal gender quotas. Binary logit analyses show that support for the introduction of positive action measures is not affected by citizens' perceptions about the share of female members of parliament. However, experimental data reveal that receiving information about women's actual proportion in parliament has an impact on citizens' support for gender quotas, in particular among those who overestimate women's representation. Once they learn that the actual share is lower than they thought, they are more likely to support the introduction of quotas. This indicates that support for positive action measures can be changed through providing the correct information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study examines the extent to which parliamentary candidates believe that membership of a certain social group allows Members of Parliament (MPs) to more effectively represent that group. Using the 2009 German Candidate Survey, we look at four social groups: women, immigrants, religious people and East Germans. The descriptive results indicate that support for group representation is highest for women and lowest for East Germans. The explanatory analyses reveal that women are more likely than men to believe that women are better at representing the interests of women. The same holds for immigrants, religious people, and East Germans. Candidates’ belief that MPs from a certain social group are better at representing that group tends to be limited to their own social group. Our results thus indicate that the belief that one should belong to a social group in order to effectively represent the interests of that group is mainly based on identity, rather than an overall belief in the link between descriptive and substantive representation. They also show that attitudes towards representation change significantly as a result of parliamentary socialisation, with candidates with parliamentary experience being significantly less likely to support the idea of group representation compared with those without such experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the interaction between newly elected deputies and an established legislative culture. Legislative research has largely ignored the socialization processes among new legislators and their effects. These processes are studied for the state legislatures of Baden-Wurttemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia, based on a qualitative panel design. The interviews reveal both the new deputies' clear personal goals and their unclear expectations about parliamentary procedures. The gap between individual ideas and institutional norms is filled by the deputies' adapting to established rituals and rules of the game. As an expression of the legislative culture, these norms and rules are transmitted by the traditional socialization agents within the parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]