Who likes social representation, why, and with what implications?

The social dimension of political representation is salient in contemporary debates about the quality of representative democracy. It envisions all relevant social groups enjoying equal and effective representation. This is a legitimate concern, given the value of political equality. However, to what extent do political agents support this perspective and what may explain the variance in this regard? This is the question to which this chapter contributes. We aim to make theoretical and empirical headway in this regard. Theoretically, the chapter stresses the complementary role of social and political factors in advancing beliefs about social representation. Empirically, the chapter draws from the German Candidate Study 2021 to tap into accessible beliefs of relevant political agents. Overall, the results of this study show that candidates representing left parties are more positive about social representation. However, we find independent positive effects for the group affiliations of candidates and electoral context.