Economic Inequality and Political Representation

I examine the differential responsiveness of U.S. senators to the preferences of rich and poor constituents. My analysis includes broad summary measures of senators' roll call voting behavior as well as specific votes on the minimum wage, civil rights, government spending, and abortion. In every instance, senators appear to be much more responsive to the opinions of affluent constituents than to the opinions of constituents with modest incomes. On average, my estimates suggest that constituents at the 75th percentile of the income distribution have almost three times as much influence on senators' general voting patterns as those at the 25th percentile, and several times as much influence on specific salient roll call votes. The preferences of constituents near the top of the income distribution are even more influential, while those in the bottom fifth receive little or no weight, especially from Republican senators. In the domain of ideology the disproportional influence of affluent constituents seems partly attributable to their greater propensity to vote and to contact senators and their staffs; in the domain of abortion the impact of income does not seem to be mediated by turnout, contacting, or political knowledge, and may reflect the dependence of elected officials on campaign contributions from pro-choice and pro-life activists. 1 One of the most basic principles of democracy is the notion that every citizen's preferences should count equally in the realm of politics and government. But there are a variety of good reasons to believe that preferences are not counted equally by policy-makers in real political systems. Wealthier and better-educated citizens are more likely than the poor and less-educated to have well-formulated and well-informed preferences, significantly more likely to turn out to vote, much more likely to have direct contact with public officials, and vastly more likely to contribute money and energy to political campaigns – all characteristic differences that seem likely to produce greater responsiveness from elected politicians. Economic and political developments in the contemporary United States have probably exacerbated long-standing inequalities in political influence. On one hand, the shape of the income distribution has changed markedly in the past two decades, with substantial gains in real income among those at the top outpacing much more modest gains in the middle and lower classes. For example, the average real income of the wealthiest one-fifth of American families increased by more than $50,000 (more than 50 percent) between 1980 and 2000, while …