D4 Published development or research report or study
Political representation and the evolution of group differences within parties: Evidence from 110 years of parliamentary speech
Authors: Nieminen Jeremias, Simola Salla, Tukiainen Janne
Publisher: Aboa Centre for Economics
Publication year: 2023
Series title: Aboa Centre for Economics Discussion paper
Number in series: 161
ISSN: 1796-3133
Web address : https://ace-economics.fi/kuvat/dp161.pdf
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/380615471
We study the long-term evolution of party demographics and the associated changes in parliamentary speech patterns of various withinparty groups in Finland during 1907-2018. We find significant speech differences by gender and university education status, while other MP characteristics - age, white-collar job, first-term MP status, or urbanicity - do not predict speech patterns. We find that when female seat share began to rise in the late 1950s, there is a concurrent increase in speech differences by gender. As the representation of women increased, there was also a shift in speech topics female MPs specialized in. Additionally, we observe a sharp increase in speech differences by education when the seat share of university-educated increased in the 1960s. These results suggest that descriptive representation of these groups may play a role in changing speech patterns, and thus, in their substantive representation.
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