Who Wants Descriptive Representation, and Why?

• In Event: Conceptions of Democracy among German and American Citizens and Political Elites

Abstract

In the face of mounting evidence for the substantive under-representation of marginalized groups and for the lack of responsiveness to their concerns in democratic legislation, calls for measures to improve descriptive representation have become louder. While better descriptive representation may be in the interest of a majority of citizens, the implementation of respective measures is eventually down to political elites. We therefore ask what legislators in the United States and Germany think about the importance of descriptive representation. Leveraging data from new surveys in both countries, we analyze respondents’ views on descriptive representation concerning gender, age, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. We hypothesize, first, that process preferences for better descriptive representation are correlated with substantive preferences for progressive policies and that parties on the left will deem descriptive representation more important. Secondly, we expect intersectionality to affect the formation of process preferences, and members of disadvantaged groups to be more supportive of better descriptive representation of all groups. Our findings show clear differences between parties, confirming that left-leaning parties tend to be more supportive of descriptive representation. Moreover, women are more supportive of descriptive representation in most parties, with female legislators supporting not only women’s representation but also better descriptive representation for other groups. The group least supportive of descriptive representation are men in right-wing parties.

Author

• Armin Schäfer, Johannes Gutenberg University