https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/issue/feedPolitics and Governance2024-03-13T11:06:15+00:00Carolina Correiapag@cogitatiopress.comOpen Journal SystemsPolitics and Governance is an innovative new offering to the world of online peer-reviewed open access publishing in the Political Sciences.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7331Reject, Reject, Reject...Passed! Explaining a Latecomer of Emigrant Enfranchisement2024-03-13T11:06:14+00:00Victoria FinnJuan Pablo RamaciottiDespite the extensive spread of external voting across the world, exceptions remain as some countries have not passed such regulations (e.g., Uruguay) or have passed them but lag implementation (e.g., Nicaragua). Others still took a long time to join the trend, possibly presenting a pushback to the commonly accepted notion of norm diffusion to explain migrant enfranchisement. We examine a latecomer by asking why Chile took so long to enfranchise emigrants. Classified as a liberal democracy with a century of legal history of foreign-resident voting, it repeatedly rejected proposed bills on external voting since 1971. Chile enacted external voting only in 2014, regulated it in 2016, and applied it in 2017. Through legal historical content analysis, we identify which political actors proposed the bills, when, and why each failed. Left and right-leaning actors gave normative, legal, and procedural reasons that resulted in rejection and stagnation at various institutional stages. This latecomer’s constitutional tradition, strongly focused on territory and territorial links, potentially sheds light on dozens of other country cases of late adoption of the external franchise.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Victoria Finn, Juan Pablo Ramaciottihttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7396Migrants' Voter Turnout in the Home Country Elections: Non‐Integration or Political Anchor?2024-03-13T11:06:14+00:00Sergiu GherghinaAdrian BasarabăThe transnational political participation of migrants has been extensively analyzed in the literature. Previous explanations focus on individual determinants ranging from political interest or efficacy to social ties or socio-demographic characteristics. So far, little attention has been paid to the contrast between factors related to their lives in two different countries. The present article adds to this burgeoning literature by identifying and comparing the effects of several attitudes and behaviors of migrants in the host and home country on their voter turnout in home country elections. We use individual-level data from a survey conducted in 2022 on 1,058 Romanian migrants living around the world. The results indicate that migrants who remain anchored in the politics of their home country—without necessarily striving to return—and those who are engaged in their host communities are more likely to vote. Migrant voter turnout is not determined by poor integration in the host society.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Sergiu Gherghina, Adrian Basarabăhttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7422Diversity in Spanish Politics? Dynamics of Descriptive Representation of Immigrant‐Origin Minorities in Local Elections2024-03-13T11:06:14+00:00Daniela VintilaSantiago Pérez-NievasMarta ParadésCarles PamiesResearch has identified an alarming gap in migrants’ descriptive representation across Western European countries with long-standing immigration while showing that not all migrant groups are equally (un)successful in gaining elected office. However, little is known about migrants’ political presence in Southern European countries, which have experienced increased immigration in recent decades. We address this research gap for Spain by focusing on the municipal level where minorities’ inclusion remains of utmost importance. Conceptually, the article tackles the question of how the interplay between migrants’ demographic concentration and specific party features shapes the outcomes of minority descriptive representation. Empirically, we bring novel evidence from an original survey with local party organizations across municipalities returning high shares of Romanian, Moroccan, Latin American, and EU14 migrants. We first demonstrate that, despite being particularly sizeable, all groups remain under-represented in Spanish local politics, although with important differences. At comparable levels of demographic concentration, EU14 and Latin American migrants are almost three times more likely than Romanian migrants and up to seven times more likely than Moroccan migrants to be fielded as candidates. EU14 candidates are also more successful in securing office. Second, our findings confirm that party features shape the contours of minority inclusion: Spanish left-wing and new parties present more diverse local candidacies and place minority office-seekers in safer electoral list positions than right-wing and established parties.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Daniela Vintila, Santiago Pérez-Nievas, Marta Paradés, Carles Pamieshttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7453Selective Inclusion? Insights Into Political Parties' Recruitment of Immigrant Background Candidates in Bolzano2024-03-13T11:06:14+00:00Giorgia ZoguSophia SchönthalerPolitical parties can be crucial gatekeepers to the political participation of immigrants. This article analyzes the political selection strategies of political parties at the local level. The case study focuses on the multi-ethnic city of Bolzano in Northern Italy, which is home to a significant migrant population as well as three autochthonous language groups: Italian, German, and Ladin. First, the article gives an overview of the political lists presented at the last local elections in 2020. Second, it discusses party strategies to recruit candidates with an immigration background. The presented insights are drawn from seven “elite” interviews (i.e., with high-ranking party representatives). Overall, the findings indicate that diversity stemming from migration does not have a significant impact on the recruitment strategies of the province’s political parties’: Despite electoral lists containing an increasing number of immigrants, who have migrated to South Tyrol since the 1990s, neither newer nor traditional parties adopt significant strategies to recruit candidates with an immigration background. Overall, the diversity on political lists mostly reflects the existing language cleavages of the autochthonous population, while diversity stemming from immigration is still largely overlooked. However, the results also show that while neither of the parties is fully inclusive or exclusive in their selection methods, we identify a tendency toward selective inclusiveness of certain immigrant groups.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Giorgia Zogu, Sophia Schönthalerhttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7470Political Professionalization Beyond National Borders: An Analysis of Italian MPs in Overseas Constituencies2024-03-13T11:06:14+00:00Matteo BoldriniAmong European countries, Italy is one of the relatively few cases to provide a quota of reserved parliamentary seats for non-resident citizens. Despite an increased scientific interest in the topic, the group of MPs elected in Overseas Constituencies remains overlooked in the available literature. The gap relates to factors such as their socio-biographical profile, precedent careers, parliamentary activity, the role played in their recruitment by the party abroad or at a national level, and their style of representation. In this vein, the article investigates the career profiles of Italian MPs elected in Overseas Constituencies from 2006 (the first elections with the introduction of citizen representatives living abroad) to 2022. Based on an original data set and through an analysis of their biographical and political characteristics, the article builds a typology of elected MPs abroad by cross-referencing two dimensions derived from the literature: the linkage with the host country and the presence of previous political and associational experiences. The analysis shows that different types of MPs have different career lengths and a different capacity to collect preference votes.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Matteo Boldrinihttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7495Why Do Non‐Resident Citizens Get Elected? Candidates' Electoral Success in Ecuadorian Extraterritorial Districts2024-03-13T11:06:14+00:00Sebastián Umpierrez de RegueroPatricio NaviaTo the growing literature on non-resident citizens’ special representation, we contribute with a systematic examination of the role of descriptive representation of citizens living abroad in elections for extraterritorial districts. Using data for the 308 candidacy observations in three two-seat extraterritorial districts in five legislative elections held between 2007 and 2021 in Ecuador, for a total of 30 seats, we test four hypotheses related to the electoral rules, party-level, and socio-demographic factors of non-resident candidates. Ecuadorian non-resident candidates benefit from their incumbency position and party affiliation, along with left-wing ideological ascription and belonging to party organizations that pushed for voting rights abroad and that manifest an interest in emigrant issues. This article contributes to showing what gets emigrants elected in extraterritorial seats and offers a within-country comparison connecting elections with legislative politics across national borders.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Sebastián Umpierrez de Reguero, Patricio Naviahttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7498Migrants’ Political Participation and Representation in Poland: What Do Political Parties Have to Offer?2024-03-13T11:06:15+00:00Anna PacześniakMaria WincławskaSince 2018, Poland has been a net migration country, yet public debates on migrants and migration remain scarce and have been defined by a reactionary nature. This article, adopting a political opportunity structure perspective, focuses on political parties as the main actors shaping opportunities and constraints for migrant political participation and representation in Polish society. Based on a qualitative content analysis of party manifestos and parliamentary debates, and using the deductive thematic analysis framework, this study analysed three types of arguments parties have adopted regarding the admission of migrants. The findings revealed that Polish political parties, failing to see non-voting migrants as promising electoral targets, have weaponised the migrant issue and used it as an element of the partisan battle to attack opponents, especially during the election campaign period, instead of stimulating migrants’ political participation and offering them channels for representation.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Anna Pacześniak, Maria Wincławskahttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7527Investigating Party Abroad: Party Origins and Degrees of Formalization2024-03-13T11:06:15+00:00Sorina SoareThis article contends that contemporary transnational dynamics have given rise to novel political subjects and territories for political engagement. By looking at how parties as organizational actors operate abroad, this study reworks extant classificatory attempts and proposes an amended typology in which the salient elements of variation are the origin of the party abroad and the degree of formalization. These two dimensions produce a matrix delineating four distinct types of party organization: branch-abroad, organization-abroad in franchising, committee-abroad, and semi-political structures. Conceptually, the typology elucidates the multifaceted nature of the structural approaches employed by home parties in their endeavors to establish connections with communities abroad. Empirically, this contribution enhances the comparability between organizational configurations abroad and extant research on party structures at the national level.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Sorina Soarehttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7546Building Party Support Abroad: Turkish Diaspora Organisations in Germany and the UK2024-03-13T11:06:15+00:00Inci Öykü Yener-RoderburgErman Örsan YetişThis article covers a unique form of political mobilisation within the Turkey-originated diasporic community in Europe that formed after Turkey introduced external voting in 2012. Although existing literature has paid attention to the impact of homeland political parties on external voting rights and diaspora organisations’ role in electoral campaigns, these organisations’ impact on members’ mobilisation capacities for certain homeland parties remains understudied. This article tackles this topic by first comparing Turkey-originated diaspora organisations in Germany and the UK. Secondly, it guides future empirical work on the impact of the diaspora organisations on remote partisans’ political orientation by taking the dominant emigrant profile in a residence country dimension into the study of external voting. Focusing on eligible Turkish citizens, the findings of this article are based on participant observation and 60 in-depth interviews conducted with remote voters who participated in the mobilisation of Turkey-based political parties in Germany between 2018 and 2023 and in the UK between 2021 and 2023 through diaspora organisations.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Inci Öykü Yener-Roderburg, Erman Örsan Yetişhttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7440What Does It Take for Immigrants to Join Political Parties?2024-03-13T11:06:14+00:00Monika Bozhinoska LazarovaThomas SaalfeldOlaf SeifertPolitical parties are crucial agents in democratic representation and political integration of persons of immigrant origin, a growing category of citizens in the European Union. Research demonstrates that citizens of immigrant origin are less likely to join political parties than persons without a migratory background. Nevertheless, party membership varies across countries and between immigrants. Accounting for such inter-individual and cross-national variations, this article uses secondary data from the European Social Survey, the Migrant Integration Policy Index, and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project for 25 European democracies to uncover mechanisms that explain the party membership of immigrants. In our multilevel analysis, we test interactions between country-specific variations in legislation on migration policies on the one hand and individual differences in political socialisation and political efficacy on the other. Our models suggest significant positive effects of exposure to a democratic regime in the country of origin and of internal efficacy on party membership of citizens of immigrant origin. Additionally, our findings highlight the significance of an inclusive national framework for immigrant integration, serving as a moderator to diminish the impact of political socialisation in less democratic countries on the decision of citizens with immigrant backgrounds to participate in political parties within their country of residence.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Monika Bozhinoska Lazarova, Thomas Saalfeld, Olaf Seiferthttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7507Electoral Participation of Non‐National EU Citizens in France: The Case of the Nord2024-03-13T11:06:15+00:00Camille KelbelDavid GouardFelix von NostitzMeredith LombardSince the 1993 Maastricht Treaty, EU citizens have the right to vote in European and local elections in the member state they reside in. In France, only about a quarter do so. Our article considers what factors explain the registration and participation of non-national citizens for the French Department of the Nord where around 35,000 non-French European citizens of voting age are living. Among them, 11,638 are registered to vote in the French municipal elections. Following the 2020 municipal elections, we have consulted the electoral rolls in each of the 648 communes to know who actually cast a vote. Based on detailed census data on each EU nationality and on other information contained on the electoral lists and rolls (age, gender, place of birth, etc.) and also contextual variables, this article seeks to identify the main factors associated with registering in the first instance and turning out to vote in the second. Our results confirm wide variation in registration and voting rates according to nationality. They also show that beyond voters’ nationality and the “usual suspects” of electoral participation, contextual factors are important predictors.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Camille Kelbel, David Gouard, Felix von Nostitz, Meredith Lombardhttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8089The Political Participation and Representation of Migrants: An Overview2024-03-13T11:06:15+00:00Sorina SoareSergiu GherghinaThis thematic issue covers the participation and representation of migrants in contemporary politics. It focuses on two interconnected analytical dimensions: countries of residence and countries of origin, as arenas of political engagement and the supply and demand sides of political representation. The articles in the thematic issue advance the existing knowledge in migration studies and party politics both theoretically and empirically. They do so by proposing innovative analytical frameworks to assess the extent of participation and representation and by bringing evidence that fosters a better understanding of the intricate relationship between migration and politics.2024-03-13T10:04:40+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Sorina Soare, Sergiu Gherghina