Does the age of legislators matter to their representational behavior? Evidence from Hong Kong

Waikeung TAM*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

Abstract

In this research note we examine the impacts of legislators' age on their representational behavior in Hong Kong by conducting content analyses of the questions raised by members of the Hong Kong legislature (LegCo) at the plenary meetings from 1998 to 2016. We explore whether young legislators were more likely than older legislators to represent youth interests. Our results show that legislators' age did not significantly affect their representational behavior. We propose three factors of this null finding. The first concerns the relatively low voter turnout among young people in Hong Kong. The second is related to the career incentives of legislators in authoritarian legislature. The last factor is the political affiliation of young legislators in Hong Kong.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)270-282
Number of pages13
JournalJapanese Journal of Political Science
Volume23
Issue number3
Early online date8 Jun 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Funding

This work was supported by Research Grants Council of Hong Kong [General Research Fund (grant number LU13600618)]

Keywords

  • Age representation
  • identity politics
  • political representation
  • representational behavior
  • substantive representation

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