Ethnic quotas and political representation in Colombia: wedged open or revolving doors?

Ethnoracial legislative quotas promised to enable long-term transformations towards more just political representation. These mechanisms were designed to “open doors” to historically marginalized groups and, eventually, normalize the election of minority candidates, facilitating their re-election and access to leadership. Have these promises been fulfilled? To answer this question, we examine the ethnoracial composition of the Chamber of Representatives (2002–2026) in Colombia–a pioneer in adopting ethnoracial reserved congressional seats. Comparing self-identification and skin tone data, we find that the number of self-identified Indigenous and Afro-Colombian legislators shows a moderate increase, while people with darker skin tones are critically underrepresented with no consistent increase over time. Meanwhile, women representatives are disproportionally white. The contrasting findings suggest the politicization of racial and ethnic identities: reserved seats may lead to greater self-identification by candidates over time, as identity becomes a more central to political and electoral dynamics, without changing observable racial composition.