CONGRESS AS A REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY: THE CONCEPT OF REPRESENTATION

1. CONGRESS AS A REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY: THE CONCEPT OF REPRESENTATION Topic #20

2. Congress: The First Branch of Government • Congress is both a representative and legislative assembly. • How (and how well) does Congress do its job of lawmaking? • How (and how well) does Congress (especially the House of Representatives) stack up as a represen-tative body? • A more fundamental question is: What do we mean by “representation”? • This is a major question in both traditional political theory and modern political science. • We need to distinguish among different types and styles of representation.

3. National vs. Local Representation • National representation: how well does the House of Representatives (or Congress as a whole) represent the American people as a whole? • Local representation: how well do individual Represen-tatives (or Senators) represent the people in their particular constituencies, i.e., their districts (or states)? • Note: In some countries, the national parliament is elected by the people of the national as a whole (using a system of proportional representation). • This provides very good representation (of a particular type) at the national level • but may provide no local representation. • In contrast, English-speaking countries typically use single-member districts [SMDs] to elect representatives.

4. Descriptive Representation • Representation as similarity: • “X represents Y” means “X looks like Y” • President Clinton famously said he wanted a Cabinet that “looks like the American people.” • Descriptive representation at the national level: is Congress (especially the House or Representatives) a “representative cross-section” of the American people”? • Demographic characteristics: • Gender? • Race? • Religion? • Age? • Education? • Occupation?

5. Descriptive Representation (cont.) • Representative cross-section (cont.)? • Personal characteristics and background: • Political interest? • Political background? • Personality types? • Experiential characteristics: • Leading typical work/home lives? • Experiencing life as most people experience it? • 19th century “republican” ideal: rotation in office • 20th century approximation: term limits • Maybe none of the above really matters: rather preferential characteristics? • Party affiliation? • Ideology (liberal—conservative)? • Policy preferences? • Maybe we don’t really want perfect representation even in this respect (Madison, Federalist 10).

6. Descriptive Representation (cont.) • Why is descriptive representation imperfect? • Members of Congress are to a great extent self-selected. • Desire to hold office is a necessary, but certainly not sufficient, condition for gaining it. • Among those who desire office, the actual office holders are selected in competitive elections. • Voters may not want representative who are similar to themselves, though • they may want representatives with similar policy preferences. • Moreover, this competitive selection process is locally based.

7. National vs. Local Descriptive Representation • At the local level, descriptive representation is best fulfilled when the representative shares the modal (most common) characteristics of his/her constituents. • Suppose that, in the American population as a whole, 60% of the people are Type A and 40% are Type B (with respect to some descriptive or preferential characteristic, e.g., an opinion on some issue). • Suppose further that this 60% to 40% ratio holds over all states and districts. • Then: • Then to have perfect local representation, Congress must display highly imperfect national representation. (100% are Type A.) • If we have perfect national representation, Congress must display highly imperfect local representation. (At least 40% of members must fail to be similar to their constituents.)

8. Perfect Descriptive Representation at the National Level? • Study Guide Questions for discussion: • How could we select an assembly that would achieve nearly perfect descriptive representation (at the national level)? • For what governmental institution is a procedure like this actually used?

9. Perfect Descriptive Representation? • How could we select an assembly that would achieve perfect descriptive representation at the national level? • By using election by lot to create a sample assembly, • in the manner of samples used by survey research and public opinion polls. • But service would have to be mandatory. • For all practical purposes, this system would imply a one-term limit on members. • Would such a body be an effective legislative assembly? • Where is a procedure like this actually used? • In selecting juries, with service being (technically) mandatory.

10. Representation as Agency • Gideon v. Wainwright: every defendant must be “represented” by a lawyer. • Gideon did not want a lawyer who was similar to (descriptively representative of) himself. • Representation as Agency: • “X represents Y” means “X acts on behalf of Y,” • or “X is a representative agent of Y.” • National vs. local agency: • Congress as the representative agent of the American people, vs. • individual members of Congress as the representative agents of their constituents.

11. Representation as Agency (cont.) • A common complaint (among both political scientists and other commentators): • individual members of Congress are very good representative agents of their districts, but • Congress as a whole is less effective as representative agent of the people as a whole. • This may be due in large part because members devote so much time, attention, and effort to local representation as agency, by • visiting their districts almost every weekend; • devoting staff time and resources to casework; and • emphasizing pork barrel [distributive] politics (and earmarks), etc.

12. Delegate vs. Trustee • Two types of representative agents: • The (instructed) delegate: the agent merely “stands in” or “speaks for” for the principal [the person or group being represented]. • The (uninstructed) trustee: the agent has special expertise that he/she uses to advance the best interests of the principal. • In diplomacy: 18th century plenipotentiaries vs. 20th century diplomacy with instant communications. • Under the Articles of Confederation, members of Congress were (often instructed) delegates representing state governments that could recall them at any time. • Under the Constitution, • Senators were appointed by state legislatures who sometimes tried to instruct them, but without much success because the Senators had fixed and long terms of office. • Today Senators, like Representatives, are elected by large electorates who cannot give literal instructions (but public opinion in their districts may be lopsided on some issues and hard to go against). • In general, an agent representing a plural principal (e.g., an electorate) cannot be a pure instructed delegate, but elected agents can lean more or less in the delegate or trustee direction.

13. Dilemmas of Representation • Edmund Burke: an 18th century British politician and political thinker. • Burke’s “Speech to the Electors of Bristol”: • It ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention. But your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion. . . . Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.

14. Dilemmas of Representation (cont.) • In Burke’s view, every representative should be a trustee for the nation as a whole (vs. a local delegate). • A Burkean dilemma occurs when an elected representative is faced with a conflict between the delegate and trustee roles. • Historical note: Burke was defeated for re-election. • JFK’s Profiles in Courage. • A delegate’s dilemma occurs when a representative’s constituency is about equally divided on some divisive and salient issue that the representative must vote on.