| Description |
Two concepts significant to electoral politics are descriptive and substantive representation. While descriptive representation describes an individual representing a group they share a specific characteristic with, substantive representation describes actual actions taken by representatives to further a group's interests. In this paper, I analyze whether a relationship between descriptive and substantive representation exists for the American working class. I start by analyzing relevant literature to these concepts of representation and their relation to working-class Americans. Then, I analyze data on occupational backgrounds and voting scores for members of Congress for all terms served from the 111th Congress in 2009 until the ongoing 118th Congress in 2024. Finally, I analyze each state legislature in the United States, its working-class composition, and its characteristics that support or hinder working-class representation. I ultimately find that the working class in this country is greatly underrepresented when it comes to descriptive representation. Further, I find working-class members of Congress better align their votes than members of Congress not from working-class backgrounds with the economic views expressed by the American working class, meaning descriptive representation for this group does indeed lead to substantive representation. Lastly, I find that state legislatures that are more professionalized better support and lead to workingclass officeholding and state legislatures in general could look to reform themselves to become more professionalized in order to better support working-class representation. |
