Suchergebnisse

How well do governments represent the societies they serve? A key aspect of this question concerns the extent to which leaders reflect the demographic features of the population they represent. To address this important issue in a systematic manner, we propose a unified approach for measuring descriptive representation. We apply this approach to newly collected data describing the ethnic, linguistic, religious, and gender identities of over fifty thousand leaders serving in 1,552 political bodies across 156 countries. Strikingly, no country represents social groups in rough proportion to their share of the population. To explain this shortfall, we focus on compositional factors—the size of political bodies as well as the number and relative size of social groups. We investigate these factors using a simple model based on random sampling and the original data described above. Our analyses demonstrate that roughly half of the variability in descriptive representation is attributable to compositional factors.

AbstractDrawing on the descriptive representation literature, we argue that religious identity is a social identity similar to gender or race, which leads a person to feel represented by someone who shares their religious identity. We argue that religious identity motivates approbation for public officials that is distinct from partisanship. We find that constituents who share the religious identity of their congressional representatives are significantly more likely to approve of their representative's performance in office. In addition, those who share a religious identity with President Obama are more trusting of him; particularly among those for whom religion is important. Finally, we find that shared religious identity moderates the relationship between partisanship and trust in the President. All else equal, Republicans who share a religious identity with President Obama are 500% more likely to trust him than a Republican who does not.

"The Descriptive Representation of Women in Politics" published on by Oxford University Press.

This dissertation studies the descriptive (i.e. numeric) representation of women in national parliaments in three related but independent papers. The empirical analysis presented in the papers is based on two original data sets. The first, macro level data set covers the democratic elections of 75 nations between the years 1980 and 2010. A subset of these data covering the OECD nations is augmented to include a set of socioeconomic variables that were not available for other countries. The second data set is a collection of candidate data from six Estonian elections between the years 1992 and 2011. The papers use a variety of quantitative techniques to support the theoretical claims made in them. ; TARA (Trinity?s Access to Research Archive) has a robust takedown policy. Please contact us if you have any concerns: rssadmin@tcd.ie

Jane Mansbridge (1999) challenges critics of descriptive representation, writing that it leads to improvements in substantive representation. Theorists, however, continue to debate the degree to which groups can be represented by single individuals in government as gains in descriptive representation fail to be transformative. The effects of descriptive representation are more complex than they are often presented as new descriptive representatives do not always win acceptance. Even as there are substantive policy gains through descriptive representation, there are also setbacks for groups through the mobilization of opposition groups. There is also pressure on descriptive representatives to moderate their positions and be less vocal. Given the dominant position of privileged groups and their conservative ideologies that defend inequality, substantive gains from descriptive representation are less than implied by descriptive representation advocates.

Representation is crucial for democracy: good representation helps to increase responsiveness, foster electoral turnout, increase political interest and include minorities. However, what good representation should be is debated. In this contribution we distinguish the substantive and the descriptive approach of representation. While the two forms start from different normative assumptions, they both suggest the same impact of high degrees of representation: increased political interest, higher electoral participation and better minority inclusion. We examine the degree of representation of cantonal citizens in the Swiss national parliament. Our results suggest that the cantons differ concerning substantive and descriptive representation. The two forms seem to be mutually exclusive. Testing for the different impacts, the results suggest a better performance of descriptive representation fostering political interest and weakening the attenuating impact of gender on the formation of political interest. Our contribution should be understood as a tentative draft for a more in-depth analysis of political representation in Switzerland. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractThe failure to ensure descriptive representation is one of the challenges facing democracy. In the literature, it is suggested that, among others, imperfect descriptive representation is connected to insufficient legitimacy as well as low trust in political institutions. This paper analyses the link between descriptive representation and both people's satisfaction with the way democracy is working in practice and trust in political institutions in Slovenia which, despite 30 years of democratic rule, are characterised by persistent low trust and satisfaction levels.Considering longitudinal public opinion data and a database on the composition of the Slovenian parliament (eight terms) in terms of gender, age groups and education, we find that also in Slovenia especially women, the young, the elderly and those with a basic education are underrepresented, with this being reflected in trust in the parliament and people's perception of the way in which democracy is working. Still, the fact such underrepresentation has continued for some time (regardless of certain changes) means these findings are only part of the explanation.

Previous scholarship has linked increased representation of women, racial/ethnic minorities, the LGB community, and the working class to more representative legislative agendas and roll call voting. But it is unclear if descriptive representation of historically excluded groups also affects policy innovativeness. Borrowing from interdisciplinary research, we argue that diverse legislatures are more innovative, so long as legislators operate in a quality deliberative environment. We measure the descriptive representation of seven different underrepresented groups in state legislatures from 1984 to 2016. We find that representation of women is a key predictor of innovation, operationalized as the tendency for states to adopt new policies early. We also find the effect of women is not dependent on critical mass, is undermined by high levels of polarization, and helps boost the capacity of legislatures to produce unique policy language. Some models are suggestive of a relationship between racial/ethnic minority (Black, Latinx, Native American) representation and innovation, but the results are inconsistent. The study provides insights into how representation of women can enhance legislative capacity to innovate in public policy.

This article broadens consideration of the gender gap from voting differ ences to the larger question of affective preferences for descriptive represen tation (Pitkin 1967). The results, based on a 1993 survey of 416 individuals, suggest that women are far more likely than men to be "gender conscious" in their evaluation of a candidate or a preferred representative. Differences among the 224 women in the sample can be traced to at least four sources. Group interests and feminist attitudes are positive sources of women's preferences for descriptive representation. Conversely, conservative political views deter some women from supporting women in politics. The results also provide partial support for Carroll's (1987) psychological and economic autonomy thesis. Finally, the results suggest that in part the "gender gap" may be a generational gap most prevalent among "baby boomers." ; Yes ; https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guidelines

Representation is crucial for democracy: good representation helps to increase responsiveness, foster electoral turnout, increase political interest and include minorities. However, what good representation should be is debated. In this contribution we distinguish the substantive and the descriptive approach of representation. While the two forms start from different normative assumptions, they both suggest the same impact of high degrees of representation: increased political interest, higher electoral participation and better minority inclusion. We examine the degree of representation of cantonal citizens in the Swiss national parliament. Our results suggest that the cantons differ concerning substantive and descriptive representation. The two forms seem to be mutually exclusive. Testing for the different impacts, the results suggest a better performance of descriptive representation fostering political interest and weakening the attenuating impact of gender on the formation of political interest. Our contribution should be understood as a tentative draft for a more in‐depth analysis of political representation in Switzerland.