Abstract
Do legislators represent the rich better than they represent the poor? Recent work provides mixed support for this proposition. I test the hypothesis of differential representation using a data set on the political preferences of 318,537 individuals. Evidence of differential representation in the House of Representatives is weak. Support for differential representation is stronger in the Senate. In recent years, representation has occurred primarily through the selection of a legislator from the appropriate party. Although the preferences of higher-income constituents account for more of the variation in legislator voting behavior, higher-income constituents also account for much more of the variation in district preferences. In light of the low level of overall responsiveness, differential responsiveness appears small.
- Copyright © 2016 by Russell Sage Foundation. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Reproduction by the United States Government in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose. This work builds on work in my dissertation that benefited greatly from comments and feedback from David Brady, Morris Fiorina, Simon Jackman, Jeffrey B. Lewis, and Howard Rosenthal. It also builds on work with Jeffrey Lewis creating the software necessary to estimate the model of preferences. All mistakes remain my own. Direct correspondence to: Chris Tausanovitch at ctausanovitch{at}ucla.edu, 3383 Bunche Hall, University of California–Los Angeles, CA 90095.
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