The colours of lawmaking: ethno-racial descriptive representation in Mexico.

A growing body of empirical research in Latin America reveals a correlation between skin colour and disadvantages in income, health, education, and employment. The impact of skin colour in the political sphere, however, remains severely understudied. Is there any evidence to suggest racialised polit...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Ethnic & Racial Studies Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 785 - 809
Autor principal: Rejón Piña, René
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Mar2024
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:A growing body of empirical research in Latin America reveals a correlation between skin colour and disadvantages in income, health, education, and employment. The impact of skin colour in the political sphere, however, remains severely understudied. Is there any evidence to suggest racialised political underrepresentation in Latin America? To analyse the status of ethno-racial representation in Mexico, this paper uses the Classification Algorithm for Skin Colour (CASCo) to collect skin colour data of the (3,000) members of the last six legislatures of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. The findings suggest that, while legislatures tend to be relatively diverse, positions of legislative leadership are unproportionally restricted to legislators with light skin colour. This article not only provides much-needed empirical data on the political impact of skin colour in Latin America, but it reveals the sociocultural complexities of the political underrepresentation of racialised groups in Mexico.