I seek to understand how (minority) societal groups gain representation under various political regimes. In a democracy, we expect that the interests of voters will be represented in policy making by elected legislators. But which legislators become influential, and which voters’ interests, therefore, end up reflected in government policies? We would expect politicians to form majority seeking parties to increase their chances to influence policy. Surprisingly though, some of the politicians join permanently small parties. In my research I focus on these small —non-majority seeking— parties. I investigate why do they form (and do not merge into a bigger entity), and how they compete or cooperate with each other to influence the policy making process.
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