Descriptive Representation, District Demography, and Attitudes toward Congress Among African Americans

• Published date: 01 May 2008
• Date: 01 May 2008
• Author: RACHEL K. CREMONA,THOMAS L. BRUNELL,CHRISTOPHER J. ANDERSON
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3162/036298008784310957

223Descriptive Representation

LEGISLATIVE STUDIES QUARTERLY, XXXIII, 2, May 2008 223

THOMAS L. BRUNELL

University of Texas at Dallas

CHRISTOPHER J. ANDERSON

Cornell University

RACHEL K. CREMONA

Flagler College

Descriptive Representation,

District Demography, and

Attitudes toward Congress

Among African Americans

We examined the effects of subjective and objective descriptive representation

and district demography on African Americans’ attitudes toward their member of

Congress and the U.S. Congress as an institution. We investigated whether or not

African Americans in more-racially homogeneous districts differ in their attitudes

from counterparts in districts with fewer African Americans. We also studied the

effects of descriptive representation and district demography to determine if these

effects are contingent on voters’ perceptions of descriptive representation. We found

that living in a district with a higher proportion of blacks enhances African American

voters’ feelings toward their representative and marginally elevates these voters’

evaluations of Congress. This effect is mediated, however, by the election of a black

representative to Congress.

Issues of representation and attitudes toward government are

central to an understanding of democratic political systems, and

political scientists widely believe that representation and attitudes are

related: equal, fair, and effective representation, we commonly assume,

breed positive attitudes toward the political process and governmental

institutions. Yet this conjecture has seldom been put to the test. For

this article, we conducted one such test by drawing on two central

issues in contemporary debates about representation in the United

States: majority-minority districting and descriptive representation.

Questions of both descriptive representation and district demog-

raphy have recently become increasingly important, particularly in

contemporary debates on redistricting and majority-minority districts

224 Brunell, Anderson, and Cremona

in the U.S. Congress. On the heels of the Voting Rights Act renewal, a

potentially far-reaching court decision from the most recent round of

redistricting (Georgia v. Ashcroft), and the associated conflicts

regarding “unpacking” majority-minority districts, we chose to inves-

tigate how both descriptive representation (the election of a black

representative and perceptions of black representation) and the

proportion of minority voters in majority-minority districts affect

African Americans’ evaluations of government. As well, we sought to

determine if descriptive representation and district demography affect

beliefs about government independently of each other and whether or

not beliefs about black representation moderate the effect of objective

variables, such as district demography or being represented by a black

member of Congress.

Like prior researchers, we presumed that descriptive representa-

tion in the form of electing a black member of Congress fosters a sense

of empowerment among African American voters and thus enhances

their attitudes toward both their representative and Congress as an

institution. Additionally, following Tate (2003), we hypothesized that

subjective perceptions of descriptive representation (that is, how well

African Americans believe themselves to be descriptively represented

at the national level) play a significant and independent role in affecting

the attitudes of blacks toward government. In a departure from previous

research, however, our study explores whether or not black voters in

districts with greater numbers of African Americans are more likely to

approve of their representative and Congress, regardless of whether

these constituents are represented by a black or nonblack member of

Congress. Moreover, we investigated the interaction of perceptions of

descriptive representation with measures of actual descriptive repre-

sentation and district demography to determine if such interaction

shapes African Americans’ views of Congress and its members.

We examined our hypotheses using survey data collected as part of

the National Black Election Study as well as demographic information

regarding the makeup of congressional districts. We found that living in a

district with a higher proportion of blacks enhances African American

voters’ feelings toward their representative and marginally elevates their

evaluations of Congress. Similarly, we found that descriptive representa-

tion (the election of a black representative) has a direct effect on African

American attitudes toward their member of Congress, but not toward

Congress the institution. In addition, our evidence shows that subjective

perceptions of descriptive representation (beliefs about African

American representation in Congress) exert a positive and significant

effect on attitudes toward Congress and its members.