When and Why Minority Legislators Matter

Griffin, John D.

doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-033011-205028

Cited by 44 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 58 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This article is about the sources of social groups’ substantive representation – that is, about whether representatives act ‘in the interest of [the social groups], in a manner responsive to them’ (Pitkin : 209). We know from previous research that women, ethnic minorities and the working class are best represented by their own representatives (Owens ; Preuhs ; Paxton, Kunovich and Hughes ; Minta ; Wängnerud ; Carnes ; Griffin – though see Swain for a dissenting view). However, it is difficult to assure descriptive representation – that is, ‘numeric similarity between legislative bodies and the electorate they represent in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, or other characteristics’ (Paxton, Kunovich and Hughes : 265; Pitkin ) – with a limited number of political representatives (Goodin – though see Hughes ) .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

That's what friends are for: how intergroup friendships promote historically disadvantaged groups’ substantive political representation

Kokkonen

Karlsson

2017

British Journal of Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The interests of historically disadvantaged groups risk being overlooked if they are not present in the decision-making process. However, a mere presence in politics does not guarantee political success. Often groups need allies to promote their interests successfully. We argue that one way to identify such allies is to judge politicians by whether they have friends in historically disadvantaged groups, as intergroup friendships have been shown to make people understand and feel empathy for outgroups. In other words, intergroup friendships may function as an important complement to descriptive representation. We test our argument with a unique survey that asks all elected political representatives in Sweden's 290 municipalities (response rate 79 per cent) about their friendship ties to, and their representation of, five historically disadvantaged groups: women, immigrants, youths, pensioners and blue-collar workers. We find a strong correlation between representatives' friendship ties to these groups and their commitment to represent them. The correlation is especially strong for youths and blue-collar workers, which likely can be explained by the fact that these groups usually lack crucial political resources (such as experience and education). We conclude that friendship ties function as an important complement to descriptive representation for achieving substantive representation.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

That's what friends are for: how intergroup friendships promote historically disadvantaged groups’ substantive political representation

Kokkonen

Karlsson

2017

British Journal of Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…First, on economic issues the CBC’s positions tend to match the preferences of African Americans in the mass public (Strolovitch ; Tate ; ). Second, the members of the CBC have been shown to vote in ways consistent with their African American constituents (e.g., Lublin ; Canon ; Griffin and Newman ; Grose ; Griffin ), again suggesting that the CBC mirrors the African American community in important ways. Thus, it may be that what we have found about presidential representation of the CBC is true of presidential representation of the African American community’s spending priorities more broadly.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presidents and the Congressional Black Caucus: The Racial Consequences of Electoral Incentives

Griffin¹,

Newman²

2018

Pres Stud Q

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Presidents face incentives to move toward the median voter as elections approach. We explore the racial consequences of these electoral incentives. As presidents move toward the center, they move away from ideologically noncentrist groups like the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Comparing the president’s annual budget proposal to the CBC’s alternative budget from 1980 to 2012, we test whether Democrats’ (Republicans’) budgets are less (more) congruent with the CBC’s alternative budgets in election years. Typically, Democrats’ budgets are much more congruent than Republicans’ with the CBC’s budgets. However, in election years, Democrats’ budget proposals tend to move away from the CBC’s ideal such that Democrats’ budgets are no better aligned with the CBC than are Republicans’ budgets.

show abstract

“…But cognitive shortcuts may also take different forms. In the reasoning outlined so far, the implicit assumption was that ethnic group members have an essential identity that all members share and that is different to that of the respective majority group, and with which come shared interests or worldviews which may affect political attitudes (Mansbridge 1999;Griffin 2014).…”

Section: Determinants Of Electoral Fairnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnicity, inequality, and perceived electoral fairness

Flesken

Hartl

2020

Social Science Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Establishing electoral legitimacy across the population is vital for democratic stability, yet in contrast to other measures of political support, perceived electoral fairness has received scant scholarly attention. Moreover, while research into other measures of political support has shown that they differ by both ethnicity and socioeconomic status, no study examines both at once, potentially overlooking important interrelationships between the two variables. This paper combines data from the Ethnic Power Relations project and the World Value Survey to examine respondents' perceptions of electoral fairness according to their ethnic group's access to power, their individual socioeconomic status, and the intersection of these two. It finds that one's ethnic group's political status does affect perceived fairness, but that the effect interacts strongly with one's socioeconomic status. Poorer members of nonrepresented ethnic groups have significantly lower perceptions of fairness, while richer members' perceptions do not differ from those of represented groups. The results suggest a levelling effect of socioeconomic status on ethnic inequalities.

show abstract

When and Why Minority Legislators Matter

Cited by 44 publications

References 58 publications

That's what friends are for: how intergroup friendships promote historically disadvantaged groups’ substantive political representation

That's what friends are for: how intergroup friendships promote historically disadvantaged groups’ substantive political representation

Presidents and the Congressional Black Caucus: The Racial Consequences of Electoral Incentives

Ethnicity, inequality, and perceived electoral fairness

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About