Beyond Interests: Theorising the role of identities and status concerns in political competition

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• the Robert Schuman Centre Seminar Series

Join Christina Zuber, Jean Monnet Fellow, as she presents her research research at the Robert Schuman Centre's Seminar Series.

Far-right mobilisation and democratic backsliding have put a spotlight on the role of social identities and status concerns as causes of political behavior. However, standard theories of representative democracy remain anchored in a policy-only world in which voters are assumed to have interests, but no concerns about the status of social groups they identify with.

Drawing inspiration from social psychology, identity economics, and nationalism studies, this presentation will discuss how we should update our theories of representative democracy to make better sense of real-world elections in which voters are motivated by a mix of interests and status concerns, and in which political parties connect policy offers and group appeals to address both of these motivations.