Members of Congress May Not Look like Their Constituents, but They Do Look like Their Parties

Description

Does the “People’s House” look like the people? This question has been addressed from many different perspectives and the answer is usually the same: not really. On just about every salient demographic, cultural, and economic measure, House members do not “look” much like their constituents. For example, Casey Burgat and I have written  about the stunning wealth gap members of Congress enjoy compared to the American people; a new Roll Call report confirms our findings. And as Figure 1 indicates, groups like women and Americans of color remain sharply underrepresented in the current House, while Christians, married people, and the well-educated are highly overrepresented. Where can those concerned about descriptive representation turn for encouragement?