What Intersectionality Means for Descriptive Representation

• In Event: Descriptive Representation, Substantive Representation, or NO Representation?

Abstract

Theories of descriptive representation often focus on an assumed value of identity in voter choice for elected representatives: if voters share an identity they will be more likely to vote for a representative because that representative has an internal incentive to act in their group’s best interest. While others have pointed to the omissions that current theory has for individuals who bear multiracial identities (e.g. Lemi 2022), this paper examines the need to understand descriptive representation in context of intersectionality, where identity is understood holistically along facets of ethno-race, gender, etc. By examining what descriptive identity means in context of intersectionality, the need for descriptive representation rests on group salience and differentials in political power. This paper then, argues that theories of descriptive representation that do not account for power and intersectional identities are, at best, incomplete, and may miss how descriptive representation functions in context of substantive policy advances.

Author

• Tabitha Bonilla, Northwestern University