Affiliation:
1. Department of Political Science Vanderbilt University Nashville Tennessee USA
Abstract
AbstractWe know little about the extent to which racial minorities are symbolically represented by members of Congress. This stands in contrast to a wealth of research analyzing the extent to which minorities are substantively and descriptively represented. This article provides the most comprehensive analysis of symbolic representation to date. Using data on legislators’ speech from 105,875 newsletters and 620,838 floor speeches, I find that White legislators of both parties are more likely to symbolically represent Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians if those groups are more populous in their constituency. However, these effects only hold cross‐sectionally; using a difference‐in‐differences setup from redistricting shocks, I find that there is little within‐legislator variation in speech patterns as their constituencies change. Lastly, I show that, unlike on the symbolic dimension, legislators’ substantive representation is not influenced by group size. I conclude that White legislators are symbolically responsive to their constituents’ identities in their speech patterns.
Reference65 articles.
1. Who Evaluates a Presidential Candidate by Using Non-Policy Campaign Messages?
2. Ansolabehere Stephen andBrianSchaffner2013. “CCES Common Content 2012.”https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/HQEVPK Harvard.Dataverse V9 UNF:5:Eg5SQysFZaPiXc8tEbmmRA==[fileUNF].
3. Ansolabehere Stephen andBrian F.Schaffner.2017. “CCES Common Content 2016.”https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/GDF6Z0 Harvard Dataverse V4 UNF:6:WhtR8dNtMzReHC295hA4cg==[fileUNF].
4. Stopping the Hate: Political Condemnations of Anti‐Asian Rhetoric During the COVID‐19 Crisis;Arora Maneesh;Journal of Asian American Studies,2020
5. Racial Composition, White Racial Attitudes, and Black Representation: Testing the Racial Threat Hypothesis in the United States Senate