Are Non-Whites Underrepresented in Government Policy?

• In Event: Race and Political Representation

Abstract

The expectation in a representative democracy is that the preferences of the public should influence the behavior of elected officials in Congress. Most scholars agree that this is indeed the case, but they argue that legislators' responsiveness has recently declined. Members of Congress seem to disproportionately represent the interests of their co-partisans and of high-income Americans. Is there also a racial disparity in representation, even after accounting for income and partisanship? Are white Americans better represented in government decisions than are African Americans and Latinos? This paper explores the relationship between congressional district-level public opinion on proposed bills, broken down by racial group, and the roll call votes of House members on those same bills. Preliminary findings suggest that not only are whites’ preferences strongly related to legislators’ vote choices, but also that legislators respond more to white constituents the more their preferences differ from those of Black constituents.

Author

• Viviana Rivera-Burgos, Columbia University