The Symbolic Benefits of Descriptive and Substantive Representation

One of the major challenges in providing quality representation comes from the desire to balance the will of the majority with the needs of political minorities. Of particular importance is whether substantive or descriptive representation are necessary to create symbolic representation and percepti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPolitical behavior Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 31 - 50
Main Authors Hayes, Matthew, Hibbing, Matthew V.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer Science + Business Media 01.03.2017
Springer US
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Citizens
Experiments
Government
Minority & ethnic groups
Minority groups
ORIGINAL PAPER
Perceptions
Political Science
Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International Studies
Politics
Race
Representation
Sociology
United States > US
California
Representation
Race
Legitimacy
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Summary:One of the major challenges in providing quality representation comes from the desire to balance the will of the majority with the needs of political minorities. Of particular importance is whether substantive or descriptive representation are necessary to create symbolic representation and perceptions that government outcomes are fair and legitimate. In this paper, we employ a novel experimental design to investigate how citizens feel about the relative importance of descriptive and substantive representation. Drawing on data from a nationally representative sample and two supplemental experiments, we show that citizens value descriptive representation independently of substantive representation. We also demonstrate that the degree of descriptive representation desired is conditional on the nature of the policy being considered.
ISSN:0190-9320
1573-6687
DOI:10.1007/s11109-016-9345-9