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10 - What Do Voters Think about the Descriptive Underrepresentation of the Working Class?

from Part II - Representation and Responsiveness in Unequal Societies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

Claudia Landwehr
Affiliation:
Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany
Thomas Saalfeld
Affiliation:
Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany
Armin Schäfer
Affiliation:
Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany
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Summary

In most democracies, politicians tend to be vastly better off than the citizens they represent: They are wealthier, more educated, and less likely to come from working-class jobs (e.g., Best 2007; Best and Cotta 2000; Carnes and Lupu 2015; Matthews 1985). Scholars have recently taken a renewed interest in this longstanding phenomenon. Some have studied the symbolic or normative implications of the shortage of politicians from the working class (e.g., Arnesen and Peters 2018; Barnes and Saxton 2019; Mansbridge 2015). Others have focused on policy: Just as the shortage of female and racial minority politicians can affect policies related to gender and race (e.g., Bratton and Ray 2002; Franck and Rainer 2012; Pande 2003; Swers 2002), the shortage of working-class politicians – who tend to be more leftist on economic issues – seems to bias taxing and spending policies towards the more conservative positions affluent citizens tend to favor (Carnes and Lupu 2015; Kirkland 2018; Kraus and Callaghan 2014; Micozzi 2018; O’Grady 2019; Rosset 2016; Szakonyi 2016; 2019; but see Lloren, Rosset, and Wüest 2015).

Type
Chapter
Information
Contested Representation
Challenges, Shortcomings and Reforms
, pp. 165 - 184
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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