Replication Data for: Do Disabled Candidates Represent Disabled Citizens?

Whether citizens are better represented by politicians ‘like them’ has been the subject of much debate and analysis. Yet, this scholarship has largely ignored the 1 in 5 people who are disabled and experience economic, social, and political marginalisation. Linking voter and candidate data from the 2015 British election, this study examines whether disabled citizens are better represented by disabled elites. It analyses the effects of disability on both preferences and preference congruence. The findings reveal that disabled citizens and candidates are more supportive of healthcare and general public spending, even within parties. At the same time, the views of disabled citizens are rarely more congruent with the positions of disabled candidates than those of non-disabled candidates, except on healthcare spending. The study provides ground-breaking insights into the role of disability in policy preferences and political representation while also highlighting broader implications of how we analyse the descriptive-substantive representation link.民众是否会被‘与自身相似’的政客更充分地代表，这一议题长期以来引发了大量学术讨论与分析。然而，现有研究大多忽略了占总人口五分之一、身处经济、社会与政治边缘化处境的残障群体。本研究整合2015年英国大选的选民与候选人数据集，探讨残障公民是否能获得残障精英更具针对性的政治代表。研究分析了残障身份对政策偏好及偏好一致性的影响。结果显示，即便在政党内部，残障公民与残障候选人均更支持医疗保健与一般性公共支出。与此同时，除医疗保健支出议题外，残障公民的观点与残障候选人的立场，极少比其与非残障候选人的立场更具一致性。本研究不仅为残障身份在政策偏好与政治代表中的作用提供了突破性洞见，同时也为我们如何分析描述性-实质性代表（descriptive-substantive representation）的关联机制，揭示了更广泛的研究启示。