Ethnic minorities in local politics: comparing Amsterdam and Paris

Many of us believe that our elected assemblies should reflect the diversity of society in some way, so as to ensure a better quality of the deliberative process and the legitimacy of political decisions. However, suspicions easily arise about the ability of politicians to strive for the common good. In Western European politics, this political tension particularly comes into play as ethnic minority politicians are concerned. Their visibility as others turns them into outsiders almost by definition, and leads them to being questioned about who and what they actually represent. This dissertation addresses the question of the role of ethnicity in politics by looking at the access of ethnic minority politicians to local councils, the development of their careers, and their discourses on political representation. This is done across two cities, namely Amsterdam and Paris, and over time, comparing the early 1990s and the present situation.