Discriminatory attitudes towards ethnic minorities are widespread, and a common presumption is that ethnic minority candidates suffer electorally as a result. However, some research has shown that little electoral discrimination occurs, because ethnic minority candidates tend to run for parties of the left, while voters with negative attitudes towards minorities are concentrated on the right. This study shows that when ethnic minority candidates do run for right-wing parties they suffer the brunt of electoral discrimination, while those on the left are insulated. To do so it leverages two methods: a candidate experiment and a difference-in-difference analysis of candidate demographic data and aggregate election results. An ideological stereotyping mechanism is also tested, but there is little evidence that right-wing voters reject ethnic minority candidates because they are viewed as left-leaning.
AboschYBarretoMAWoodsND (2007) An assessment of racially polarized voting for and against Latino candidates in California. In: HendersonA (Ed) Voting Right Act Reauthorization of 2006: Perspectives on Democracy, Participation, and Power. Berkeley CA: Berkeley Public Policy Press, pp. 107–131.
2.
AbrajanoMAAlvarezRM (2005) A natural experiment of race-based and issue voting: the 2001 city of Los Angeles elections. Political Research Quarterly58: 203–218.
3.
AchenCHBartelsLM (2016) Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
4.
ArcherKEllisF (1994) Opinion structure of party activists: the Reform Party of Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science27(2): 277.
5.
BenoitKLaverM (2006) Party Policy in Modern Democracies. London, UK: Routledge Press.
6.
BescoR (2015) Rainbow coalitions or inter-minority conflict? Racial affinity and diverse minority voters. Canadian Journal of Political Science48(2): 305–328.
7.
BescoRTolleyE (Forthcoming) Does everyone cheer? The politics of immigration and multiculturalism in Canada. In: Goodyear-GrantERichardJWillK, et al. (eds). Federalism and The Welfare State in a Multicultural World. Queen’s School of Policy Studies and McGill-Queen’s University Press.
8.
BlackJ (2013) Racial diversity in the 2011 federal election: visible minority candidates and MPs. Canadian Parliamentary Review (Autumn)36(3): 26–31.
9.
BlackJHEricksonL (2006) Ethno-racial origins of candidates and electoral performance: evidence from Canada. Party Politics12(4): 541–561.
10.
BloemraadI (2013) Accessing the corridors of power: puzzles and pathways to understanding minority representation. West European Politics36(3): 652–670.
11.
BullockCSDunnRE (1999) The demise of racial districting and the future of Black representation. Emory Law Journal48(4): 1209–1253.
12.
CairnsAC (1968) The electoral system and the party system in Canada, 1921–1965. Canadian Journal of Political Science1(1): 55.
13.
CareyJMShugartMS (1995) Incentives to cultivate a personal vote: a rank ordering of electoral formulas. Electoral Studies14(4): 417–439.
14.
CarminesELaymanG (1998) When prejudice matters: the impact of racial stereotypes on the racial policy preferences of Democrats and Republicans. In: HurwitzJPefleyM (eds), Perception and Prejudice: Race and Politics in the United States. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 100–134.
CitrinJGreenDPSearsDO (1990) White reactions to Black candidates: when does race matter?Public Opinion Quarterly54(1): 74–96.
17.
CochraneC (2013) The asymmetrical structure of left/right disagreement: left-wing coherence and right-wing fragmentation in comparative party policy. Party Politics19(1): 104–121.
18.
CoppockAGreenDP (2016) Is voting habit forming? New evidence from experiments and regression discontinuities. American Journal of Political Science60(4): 1044–1062.
19.
ConversePE (1964) The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics. In: ApterD (Ed) Ideologyand Discontent. New York: Free Press.
20.
DonnellyM (2017) Canadian Exeptionalism: Are We Good Or Are We Lucky? A Survey of Canadian Attitudes in Comparative Perspective: Report. Montreal: McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.
21.
FisherSDHeathAFSandersD, et al. (2015) Candidate ethnicity and vote choice in Britain. British Journal of Political Science45(4): 883–905.
22.
GerberASHuberGADohertyD, et al. (2010) Personality and political attitudes: relationships across issue domains and political contexts. American Political Science Review104(1): 111.
23.
GreenDPHaSEBullockJG (2010) Enough already about ‘Black Box’ experiments: studying mediation is more difficult than most scholars suppose. The ANNALS of the American Academy of the American Academy of Political and Social Science628(1): 200–208.
24.
GreenDPPalmquistBSchicklerE (2004) Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
25.
GreenwaldAGSmithCTSriramN, et al. (2009) Implicit race attitudes predicted vote in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy9(1): 241–253.
26.
HightonB (2004) White voters and African American candidates for Congress. Political Behavior26(1): 1–25.
27.
HoodMVMckeeSC (2015) True colors: White conservative support for minority Republican candidates. Public Opinion Quarterly79(1): 28–52.
28.
ImaiKKeeleLTingleyD, et al. (2011) Unpacking the black box of causality: learning about causal mechanisms from experimental and observational studies. American Political Science Review105(4): 765–789.
29.
JonesPE (2013) Revisiting stereotypes of non-White politicians’ ideological and partisan orientations. American Politics Research42(2): 283–310.
30.
KinderDRKalmoeNP (2017) Neither Liberal Nor Conservative: Ideological Innocence in the American Public. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
MarwahITriadafilosTWhiteS (2013) Immigration, citizenship and Canada’s new Conservative Party. In: RaysideDFarneyJ (eds), Conservatism in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 95–119.
34.
McDermottML (1998) Race and gender cues in low-information elections. Political Research Quarterly51(4): 895–918.
35.
Morgan-CollinsM (2016) Votes for and by women: how did women vote after the nineteenth amendment? (LSE). Political Science and Political Economy Working Paper 1.
36.
MoskowitzDStrohP (1994) Psychological sources of electoral racism. Political Psychology15(2): 307–329.
37.
NelsonTEGarstJ (2005) Values-based political messages and persuasion: relationships among speaker, recipient, and evoked values. Political Psychology26(4): 489–516.
38.
PistonS (2010) How explicit racial prejudice hurt Obama in the 2008 election. Political Behavior32(4): 431–451.
39.
RoyJAlcantaraC (2015) The candidate effect: does the local candidate matter?Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties25(2): 195–214.
40.
SaggarS (1998) Race and British Electoral Politics. Bristol: UCL Press.
41.
SchaffnerBF (2011) Racial salience and the Obama vote. Political Psychology32(6): 963–988.
42.
SigelmanCKSigelmanLWalkoszBJ, et al. (1995) Black candidates White voters: understanding racial bias in political perceptions. American Journal of Political Science39(1): 243–265.
43.
SobolewskaM (2013) Party strategies and the descriptive representation of ethnic minorities: the 2010 British general election. West European Politics36(3): 615–633.
44.
SorokaSRobertonS (2010) A Literature Review of Public Opinion Research on Canadian Attitudes Towards Multiculturalism and Immigration, 2006-2009. Ottawa, CA: Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
45.
SorokaSN (2014) Negativity in Democratic Politics: Causes and Consequences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
46.
StreetA (2014) Representation despite discrimination: minority candidates in Germany. Political Research Quarterly67(2): 374–385.
47.
TerkildsenN (1993) When White voters evaluate Black candidates: the processing implications of candidate skin color, prejudice, and self-monitoring. American Journal of Political Science37(4): 1032–1053.
48.
TeslerM (2016) Post-Racial or Most-Racial? Race and Politics in the Obama Era. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
49.
TossuttiLNajemT (2002) Minority representation in the fourth party system: macro and micro constraints and opportunities. Canadian Ethnic Studies34(1): 85–111.
50.
VossDSLublinD (2001) Black incumbents, White districts: an appraisal of the 1996 congressional elections. American Politics Research29(2): 141–182.
51.
ZingherJFarrerB (2014) The electoral effects of the descriptive representation of ethnic minority groups in Australia and the UK. Party Politics22(6): 691–704.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
