Racial Multidimensionality and Political Representation in Brazil

• In Event: Intersectional Perspectives on Race

Abstract

Race is increasingly recognized by political scientists a multidimensional social construct, yet the primordialist assumption that individuals possess a singular, objective race continues to undergird empirical measurement. In this paper, I advance the literature on descriptive and substantive representation by treating race as a constellation of conceptually distinct, albeit correlated dimensions. Using original data from Brazil, I demonstrate that between 1994 and 2014, the percentage of legislators elected to the Brazilian Congress that self-identify as Afro-Brazilian increased dramatically, but the percentage of legislators classified by constituents as Afro-Brazilian remained stable. This finding illustrates that singular measures of race may provide a narrow portrayal of descriptive representation as well as indicates that the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation warrants reconsideration. Drawing on socio-psychological explanations for intergroup relations and social identity theory in particular, I contend that how individuals racially identify themselves and how they are classified by others are likely to independently shape their preferences and influence their behavior. By exploiting variation across measures of race and data on bill sponsorship behavior, I show that self-identified Afro-Brazilian legislators and those classified as Afro-Brazilian are significantly more likely than self-identified whites to introduce legislation that improves the political, social, and economic status of Afro-Brazilians. Nevertheless, I find that legislators who self-identify and are classified as Afro-Brazilians distinguish themselves are especially responsive to members of Brazil’s marginalized Afro-Brazilian population. These results indicate that descriptive representation enhances Afro-Brazilian substantive representation in Brazil, as well as advances scholarly understanding about the mechanisms through which racial group membership affects public policy.

Author

• Andrew Janusz, University of California, San Diego