Legislators at the Statehouse: Seen and Not Seen

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

Abstract

This paper contains an analysis of visible and less visible legislative actions to secure substantive representation for people of color. There will be a discussion of how focusing on later stages in the legislative process may obscure the unique legislative styles of people of color legislators. It also contains a cross-state analysis of the varying role of legislative institutions and their effects on the opportunities and trade offs legislators are faced with. The paper is in conversation with dissertation research on the concept of legislative constraint as a mechanism for studying representation in legislatures. The paper will contain a discussion of how some forms of constraint on legislators are relatively ‘identity neutral,’ while others more strongly inhibit the choices of women, people of color, or particularly women of color. The key mechanism of analysis is the measurement of variation of bill and resolution sponsorship within state legislatures using an original data set. It is found that in some state legislatures most legislators sponsor roughly the same amount of bills and resolutions, while in others the distribution of bill and resolution sponsorship is highly varied. The implications of these findings are analyzed regarding the content of the bills and resolutions, along with secondary analysis of the hierarchy of power among legislators within the legislature.

Author

• Erik Hanson, University of Southern California