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In political theory, descriptive representation as a corrective to structural asymmetries within society is usually debated against the background of formal political institutions. It is discussed in this paper as a means to enhance the declining legitimacy of Dutch works councils as important sites of democratic decision-making in their own right. The aim is to show that the moral requirements of democratic inclusion have to be weighed against the functional requirements of effective representation, concluding that in some cases the costs in terms of effectiveness exceed the gains in terms of inclusiveness. Hence, the debate about descriptive representation is clearly in need of a more contextualized assessment of its pros and cons.

While the election of racial/ethnic minority lawmakers has diversified American legislative institutions, scholars continue to find evidence of racial backlash in public policy decisions. This seems to undermine the Madisonian conception of the ability of minority interests to offset majoritarian resentment through representation and raises the question, Can minority group representatives influence policy decisions in majoritarian institutions? Using evidence from the American states, this study shows that the fastest-growing ethnic minority group, Latinos, do benefit from descriptive representation, as increases in Latino representation and legislative incorporation offset the negative effects of Latino population size on social welfare policy.

For this article, I built on previous studies of representation by exploring the potential positive and negative impacts of descriptive representation in the policy process. Specifically, I examined the influence of openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) state legislators on the amount and types of LGBT‐related state legislation introduced from 1992 to 2002. My findings suggest that higher LGBT representation in state legislatures leads to greater substantive representation. The results also suggest, however, that descriptive representation is associated with the amount of anti‐LGBT legislation introduced. Additional analysis reveals that the net policy influence of increased LGBT representation is positive for the LGBT community.

Though many studies have focused on African Americans' turnout levels in descriptively represented electoral districts, few have examined the composition of African‐American turnout in these districts, compared to districts that are not descriptively represented. This study contends that descriptive representation should conditionally affect African Americans' political participation, given preference heterogeneity among this group. It then examines the extent to which the ideological orientations of African Americans condition the effect of their Representative's race in the 104th House on their probability of participating in the 1996 national election. The study finds that when liberal African Americans are descriptively represented, they are more likely to vote, while moderate and conservative African Americans are less likely to vote. These findings not only help to resolve prior studies' disparate conclusions concerning descriptive representation's participatory effects, but they also show that descriptive representation affects which African Americans' interests are communicated to elected officials through voting.

Analyzes relationship between female representation in local municipal councils and provision of child care, using data from the Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD) Commune Database for 1975, 1979, 1983, 1987, and 1991.

This research draws on the nation's first comprehensive database of elected leadership of color to provide a multi-cultural, multi-office, and multi-state look at the contours and context of descriptive representation by race and gender and with women of color at the center of analysis. We find that key to the persistent trend of growth in elective office holding of the nation's Black, Latino, and Asian American communities in recent decades is the expanding size of women of color elected officials. Compared to whites, gender gaps in descriptive representation are smaller among nonwhite groups. Although the proportion of nonwhite population may impact the degree of electoral success, we find parity ratios to vary by race, gender, level of office, and state. For example, states that have the highest share of the black population did not produce the highest level of representation of Black women. Finally, we find that gender differences within each race are generally significant, but far greater racial differences are found among men and women of color elected officials-especially at the municipal and school board levels of offices. We conclude that women of color have played a significant role in advancing descriptive political representation of people of color and of women in the United States as a whole. Adapted from the source document. COPIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM: HAWORTH DOCUMENT DELIVERY CENTER, The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580

Objectives. Voter participation, political knowledge and efficacy, and feelings of political estrangement or alienation have all been linked to varying levels of racial/ethnic descriptive representation. The goal of this study is to investigate similar effects on feelings of political trust with regard to the descriptive representation of women in municipal government.Methods. Using original survey data collected in 70 different U.S. municipalities, this study investigates the linkage between the descriptive representation of women on municipal legislative bodies and attitudes of political trust among the public, while controlling for other important factors.Results. The findings indicate that female descriptive representation has slightly positive effects on women's political trust, and much stronger negative effects on men's feelings of trust in government. Importantly, this effect is present only among those citizens exhibiting a moderate awareness of politics and government.Conclusions. These findings suggest that our investigations into the impact of female descriptive representation need to include more fine‐grained analyses to uncover other potential group differences, and that descriptive representation may enhance feelings of governmental trust among some segments of society but may not cure ailing political trust levels in the aggregate.