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Are African Americans Effectively Represented in Congress?

University of Notre Dame

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: John.Griffin{at}nd.edu.

	Abstract

The authors relate the racial composition of districts to five measures of legislative activity and position in the 101st to 106th Congresses: bill introduction, colleague cosponsorship, bill passage, committee portfolio, and party leadership. The authors find that African American constituents generally are represented by less active and less well-positioned legislators on four of the five measures. They also explore the origin of these disparities. Two of the disparities (bill passage and party leadership) are partly explained by the tendency of districts with larger African American populations to be less electorally competitive. A third disparity (committee portfolio) is accounted for by the tendency of larger African American populations to be represented by African American members of Congress.

First published on July 17, 2009
Political Research Quarterly 2009, doi:10.1177/1065912909340894


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