The effects of party organizational procedures on the representation of immigrant origin citizens

This paper focuses on the influence of two sets of variables on the political representation of citizens of immigrant origin (CIOs). First, we deal with parties’ internal organization and procedures. Second, we address party system components and dynamics. Party internal organization matters are related with the existence of specific organizational (sectorial bodies) for the representation of groups of immigrant origin, and the existence of quotas (both in partisan bodies and in electoral lists) to foster the inclusion of CIOs. The rules of candidate selection will also be addressed. Specifically, who can be selected, the inclusiveness of the selectorate, the degree of decentralization of the candidate selection process, and the inclusiveness of the processes for leader and national executive committee selections. Last but not least, the parliamentary group size and turnover for the parties under analysis will also be analysed. Regarding the impact of party system factors on the access of CIOs to elected office, variables such as the disproportionality of the electoral system, the effective number of parties, the level of party system fragmentation, and the share of the vote for radical right parties will be studied.