The Value of Descriptive Representation. Are the Interests of the Low Social Classes in Europe Adequately Represented by Parliamentarians from the Upper Strata of Society?

One of the fundamental principles of democracy is the equal consideration of interests in the political process. In contrast, the composition of legislative bodies in virtually all European democracies does not mirror society as a whole but is in large part made up of the wealthy and highly educated. In light of this situation the unbiased representation of all social groups might be called into question. A growing body of literature in the US addresses the issue of political inequality by comparing policy outputs or roll call votes with the preferences of high and low income groups. In cross-country analysis unequal responsiveness has mainly been studied using ideological congruence between government or party system and different income groups or social classes. While these recent studies show evidence for a severe disregard of the interest of the poor, less emphasis has been placed on examining the causal mechanisms behind this phenomenon. Key explaining factor in the US is evidently the immense influence of money in candidate selection and agenda setting through campaign financing. Yet, private party or campaign funding is of lesser significance in Europe. In comparative analysis, other causal mechanisms, mainly institutional factors like the electoral or party system, have been explored. Though, despite the severe lack of parliamentarians from the lower social class, the impact of descriptive representation has mostly been studied in the context of responsiveness towards women or minorities. However, there are likewise reasons to assume a significant impact of the socio-economic background of elected officials for the representation of the poor. Besides self-interest, representatives from the upper layer of society are also likely to have a particular understanding of social problems and will take their political decisions based on this perception. To widen the scope and better understand the importance of individual characteristics of candidates, data from the Comparative Candidate Survey will be used and matched with equivalent population data from the European Social Survey. By comparing preferences and values of candidates and citizens with different social backgrounds, two questions will be explored in a cross-country analysis: a) does political representation vary by social class? b) Does descriptive representation foster higher ideological congruence between representatives and citizens from the lower layers of society? The absence of representatives from the lower social strata in parliaments constitutes a serious limitation for democracy when the interests of the poor are mainly taken up by elected officials with similar socio-economic characteristics. No de facto political equality persists, if a whole group of society formally has the right to vote, but none of the candidates are representing their views and concerns. Political inequality could thus at least partly be explained by the composition of political institutions and would in turn call for a reform of the selection and recruitment process of political parties.