Mandated Political Representation and Redistribution

Mandated political representation for minorities involves earmarking certain electoral districts where only minority–group candidates are permitted to contest. This paper builds a political economy model to analyse the effect of such affirmative action on redistribution in equilibrium. The model predicts that, in situations where the minority is economically disadvantaged and where voters exhibit an in–group bias, such a quota can reduce transfers to poorer groups. This suggests that the gains to the minority group from having such quotas are unevenly distributed. Redistribution

in reserved districts leads to a rise in within–group inequality for the minorities.