Class in Session? Legislator Economic Background & Policy Content in Congress

• In Event: Class, Gender and Legislative Behavior in Comparative Environments

Abstract

Few groups are so poorly represented in Congress as members of the working class. While the number of Blacks, Latinos, and most recently women have dramatically increased, working class legislators remain dramatically under-represented. Scholars examining the impact of such underrepresentation on legislator behavior and representation primarily focus on the extent to which these members vote differently than do other members (Carnes 2012; 2013). Overlooked however, is the extent to which these members may write legislation to advance policies that benefit the working class. We examine the extent to which legislators from the working class enhance the substantive representation of the working class by writing legislation to advance their interests. Specifically, we employ the typology and tools developed by Lauterbach (2021) to see whether such members are more likely to write bills addressing these issues and to include language in legislation that makes the policies they promulgate more likely to be followed by downstream actors like courts, bureaucrats and state officials. Our results show the descriptive representation of working class legislators has profound substantive policy consequences.

Authors

• Benjamin Bishin, University of California, Riverside

• Thomas J. Hayes, University of Connecticut

• Erinn K Lauterbach, University of Virginia