Essays on political representation

The central goal of this dissertation is to contribute to our understanding of the link between political representation and policy outcomes. In particular, this collection of essays examines how the institutional arrangements and formal processes that precede and initiate political representation either promote or hinder the representation of various interests in society and thus determine whose interests shape public policies. The first chapter studies the relationship between descriptive representation of traditionally underrepresented minority groups and substantive representation of their interests. Examining the impact of increased African American representation from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, the chapter demonstrates that legislative representation of historically marginalized groups can lead to tangible changes in public policies. The second chapter attempts to understand why legislative representation of minority groups in American society remains low, even to this day. This chapter disentangles the impact of candidates' race on voting decisions from that of candidates' ideology, by focusing on the case of the representation of African Americans.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Political Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Ueda, Michiko

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• James M. Snyder, Jr.

• Political Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35543

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35543