A District of Their Own: Descriptive Representation in Council Districts

• In Event: Local Ideology and Polarization: Partisanship in Urban Governance

Abstract

Proponents of majority-minority districts often highlight their ability to boost descriptive representation. Yet, we also do not know the rate at which majority-minority districts translate into minority officeholders, either by encouraging minority candidates to run for office, or allowing them to win elections for office. Furthermore, we also don’t know if these effects, assuming they exist, are uniform across different minority groups. Using existing city council map databases and extending them through the 2020 redistricting cycle, and linking it with candidate demographic data, this paper estimates the effects of drawing majority-minority districts on descriptive representation using multilevel models with varying intercepts for cities and redistricting cycles. This allows for a direct comparison of the rate at which Black-majority and Latine-majority districts translate into descriptive representation. It also allows for an analysis of the extent to which majority-minority districts encourage minority candidates to run for office, regardless of electoral outcome. Preliminary results suggest that majority-minority districts are more important for the descriptive representation of Black voters than for their Latine counterparts, calling into question the ability of these districts to broadly increase descriptive representation.

Author

• Gustavo Novoa, Columbia University