Does Only Gender Matter? Exploring Spanish MPS’ Perceptions About Descriptive and Substantive Political Representation

Abstract

This paper analyses the perceptions that Spanish MPs have about the descriptive and substantive dimensions of political representation and the implications that these would have on the practice of representative democracy. Drawing on 18 in-depth interviews with members of congress and senate in the seventh legislature (2000–2004), of both sexes and from all political parties, we make a typology of discourses MPs have about these two dimensions of political representation before the Law of Equality came into force in 2007. Using an original analytical framework for the qualitative study of political representation, the study reveals that attributes belonging to both the actors and the context underlie the differences in the interviewees’ discourses. Adding to previous literature, results suggest that sex (and the gender role linked) is not the only and determinant factor to understand MPs’ definition of political representation. Other variables from the context appear to be crucial.