Full Citation

Title: Class and Representation: Legislators' Social Background and Economic Policy Changes

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2011

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Abstract: Does it matter that most politicians in the United States come from more privileged backgrounds than the citizens they represent? Although journalists, policymakers, and political observers have discussed this question throughout our nation's history, scholars of elite decision making have never systematically examined the relationship between policy outcomes and the social class composition of America's political institutions. In this essay, I show that the class backgrounds of officeholders have important consequences. Using composite economic roll call scores, original biographical data on the five most recent Congresses, and less detailed data on other postwar Congresses, I find that -unlike ordinary citizens- legislators from higher-paying or more prestigious occupations exhibit greater support for conservative economic policies. These analyses provide the first evidence of a link between the descriptive and substantive representation of social classes and highlight an understudied source of inequalities in political influence in the United States.

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Authors: Carnes, Nicholas

Institution: Princeton University

Department: Political Science

Advisor: Christopher H. Achen

Degree: Doctor in Philosophy

Publisher Location: Princeton, NJ

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other, Poverty and Welfare, Race and Ethnicity

Countries: United States