BibTeX
@MISC{Bartels05economicinequality,
author = {Larry M. Bartels},
title = {Economic Inequality and Political Representation},
year = {2005}
}
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Abstract
I examine the differential responsiveness of U.S. senators to the preferences of wealthy, middleclass, and poor constituents. My analysis includes broad summary measures of senators ’ voting behavior as well as specific votes on the minimum wage, civil rights, government spending, and abortion. In almost every instance, senators appear to be considerably more responsive to the opinions of affluent constituents than to the opinions of middle-class constituents, while the opinions of constituents in the bottom third of the income distribution have no apparent statistical effect on their senators ’ roll call votes. Disparities in representation are especially pronounced for Republican senators, who were more than twice as responsive as Democratic senators to the ideological views of affluent constituents. These income-based disparities in representation appear to be unrelated to disparities in turnout and political knowledge and only weakly related to disparities in the extent of constituents ’ contact with senators and their staffs. Economic Inequality and Political Representation 1 One of the most basic principles of democracy is the notion that every citizen’s preferences should count equally in the realm of politics and government. As Robert Dahl (1971, 1) put it, “a key characteristic of a democracy is the continued responsiveness of the government to the preferences of its citizens, considered as political equals. ” But there are a variety of good
Keyphrases
economic inequality political representation affluent constituent political equal basic principle minimum wage key characteristic income distribution ideological view civil right republican senator government spending apparent statistical effect income-based disparity call vote middle-class constituent differential responsiveness democratic senator continued responsiveness broad summary measure bottom third poor constituent u.s. senator robert dahl political knowledge specific vote citizen preference
