Elisa Deiss-Helbig

Political equality is a fundamental requirement of democracy, yet recent research raises concerns about its actual implementation, suggesting that more powerful and resource-rich segments of society often enjoy unequal representation. My research contributes to the debate on the always-timely topic of political inequality by analyzing political inequality (1) at different stages of the policymaking process (pledge making, pledge fulfillment) while (2) simultaneously focusing on demand (voter-based) and supply-side (party-based) explanations and (3) studying political inequality for the socially given variety of groups, (4 )with particular attention to those who are politically marginalized. My work brings new theoretical insights and empirical approaches to this well-established field in political science. First, I study the question of political inequality not only for groups that differ, e.g., in terms of income or gender, instead, I embrace the complexity of different social groups that will be categorized, in a second step, according to their level of political power and social image. This approach allows me to formulate more generalizable conclusions than this would be the case if only a single group was analyzed. Second, I sequence large-N (experimental) research and small-N (qualitative) case studies to generate and test innovative ideas. My project requires the collection of different kinds of data (survey data, data on electoral pledges, semi-standardized face-to-face interviews, data on the level of electoral participation of various social groups, data on organizational power of groups) and is divided in two main phases. It begins by examining pledges made by governing parties and will later extend to investigate electoral promises made by opposition parties.