Disability, perceived discrimination and political participation

Abstract

Disability affects the lives of hundreds of millions across the world. People with disabilities often experience discrimination and unequal treatment. Sometimes the mere categorization of people into groups, that is, 'healthy' vs. 'disabled', is enough to trigger discriminatory behaviour against people with disabilities. Previous studies show that in general disabilities depress political participation. However, the effect of disabilitybased discrimination on participation has received little scholarly attention. We study how perceptions of discrimination affect three forms of political participation: voting; contacting politicians; and participating in demonstrations. Results show that disability decreases voting, especially when associated with perceptions of discrimination. The analysis points in the opposite direction when the other two forms of political participation are analysed. People with disabilities are more likely to partake in demonstrations and contact politicians than non-disabled. Thus, disability-based discrimination is not always a hindrance to participation. It sometimes further motivates people with disabilities to participate.

Health and Political Engagement

“…While people with poor SRH were politically more passive, those suffering from a long-term illness or disability were more active than their healthy counterparts on almost all counts. Our findings, therefore, are consistent with those of previous studies, which show that different types of health problems relate differently to political engagement (see Mattila and Papageorgiou, 2016;. According to our results, the character of a health condition seems essential in terms of the direction of the effect on political engagement.…”

“…The rather pessimistic picture of political engagement, which is almost exclusively based on US data, is made slightly less bleak by Schur et al (2005a), who find that, among young people with disability, participation levels are equal to those among non-disabled peers. Moreover, Mattila and Papageorgiou (2016) show that, although there is a turnout gap, the disabled are more active than the non-disabled in demonstrations and direct contacts with politicians.…”

“…Correspondingly, a Finnish study based on individual-level register-based data (Sund et al 2017) discovered a positive association between cancer and voting. 1 Meanwhile, Mattila and Papageorgiou (2016) discovered that, although dis ability is associated with lower turnout, it has the opposite effect on taking part in demonstrations and contacting politicians or government officials. As in the case of chronic diseases, the activating mechanism may be traced back to group identity: people do not demonstrate or contact politicians in order to secure or restore their private benefits, but to promote collective interests.…”

Kosningar, lýðræði og fatlað fólk

“…Þá hefur verið bent á að það að kjósa er aðeins einn liður í virkum borgaralegum réttindum. Þátttaka fatlaðs fólks í stjórnmálum almennt, svo sem kosningabaráttu, umraeðum um stjórnmál og að bjóða sig fram til stjórnmálaþátttöku eru einnig mikilvaeg atriði sem þarf að huga að (Guldvik, Askheim & Johansen 2013;Mattila & Papageorgiou 2016;McColl o.fl. 2015;Priestley o.fl.…”

Cross‐group friendships and psychological well‐being: A dual pathway through social integration and empowerment

“…Therefore, during interactions with non‐disabled people, disabled people may usually feel concern and embarrassment (Carew, ), while non‐disabled people may act uncomfortable, display negative emotions, and consequently attempt to avoid such interactions completely (e.g., Green, ). This leaves disabled group members with feelings of isolation and discrimination, as well as disempowerment in the society (Mattila & Papageorgiou, ).…”