Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T18:19:35.070Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Do Voters Dislike Working-Class Candidates? Voter Biases and the Descriptive Underrepresentation of the Working Class

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2016

NICHOLAS CARNES*
Affiliation:
Duke University
NOAM LUPU*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
*
Nicholas Carnes is Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University (nicholas.carnes@duke.edu).
Noam Lupu is Associate Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Vanderbilt University (noam.lupu@vanderbilt.edu).

Abstract

In most democracies, lawmakers tend to be vastly better off than the citizens who elect them. Is that because voters prefer more affluent politicians over leaders from working-class backgrounds? In this article, we report the results of candidate choice experiments embedded in surveys in Britain, the United States, and Argentina. Using conjoint designs, we asked voters in these different contexts to choose between two hypothetical candidates, randomly varying several of the candidates’ personal characteristics, including whether they had worked in blue-collar or white-collar jobs. Contrary to the idea that voters prefer affluent politicians, the voters in our experiments viewed hypothetical candidates from the working class as equally qualified, more relatable, and just as likely to get their votes. Voters do not seem to be behind the shortage of working-class politicians. To the contrary, British, American, and Argentine voters seem perfectly willing to cast their ballots for working-class candidates.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abdullah, Halimah. 2012. “Romney, Obama: Why They Have Trouble Connecting.” CNN Online, June 12. Available online from http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/12/politics/obama-romney-connecting/ (March 26, 2015).Google Scholar
Aguilar, Rosario, Cunow, Saul, and Desposato, Scott W.. 2015. “Choice sets, gender, and candidate choice in Brazil.” Electoral Studies 39: 230–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aguilar, Rosario, Cunow, Saul, Desposato, Scott W., and Barone, Leonardo. 2015. “Ballot Structure, Candidate Race, and Vote Choice in Brazil.” Latin American Research Review 50 (3): 175202.Google Scholar
Baron, Reuben M., Albright, Linda, and Malloy, Thomas E.. 1995. “Effects of Behavioral and Social Class Information on Social Judgement.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21 (4): 308–15.Google Scholar
Bartels, Larry M. 2008. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, and New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Beramendi, Pablo, and Anderson, Christopher J., eds. 2008. Democracy, Inequality, and Representation: A Comparative Perspective. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Berinsky, Adam J., Margolis, Michele F., and Sances, Michael W.. 2014. “Separating the Shirkers from the Workers? Making Sure Respondents Pay Attention on Self-Administered Surveys.” American Journal of Political Science 58 (3): 739–53.Google Scholar
Berkman, Michael B., and O'Connor, Robert E.. 1993. “Do Women Legislators Matter? Female Legislators and State Abortion Policy.” American Politics Quarterly 21: 102–24.Google Scholar
Best, Heinrich. 2007. “New Challenges, New Elites? Changes in the Recruitment and Career Patterns of European Representative Elites.” Comparative Sociology 6: 85113.Google Scholar
Best, Heinrich, and Cotta, Maurizio, eds. 2000. Parliamentary Representatives in Europe 1848-2000: Legislative Recruitment and Careers in Eleven European Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bratton, Kathleen A., and Ray, Leonard P.. 2002. “Descriptive Representation, Policy Outcomes, and Municipal Day-Care Coverage in Norway.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (2): 428–37.Google Scholar
Campbell, Rosie, and Cowley, Philip. 2014a. “Rich Man, Poor Man, Politician Man: Wealth Effects in a Candidate Biography Survey Experiment.” British Journal of Politics and International Relations 16 (1): 5674.Google Scholar
Campbell, Rosie, and Cowley, Philip. 2014b. “What Voters Want: Reactions to Candidate Characteristics in a Survey Experiment.” Political Studies 62: 745–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, John, and Shugart, Matthew Soberg. 1995. “Incentives to Cultivate a Personal Vote.” Electoral Studies 14 (4): 417–39.Google Scholar
Carnes, Nicholas. 2012. “Does the Numerical Underrepresentation of the Working Class in Congress Matter?Legislative Studies Quarterly 37: 534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnes, Nicholas. 2013. White-collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Carnes, Nicholas, and Lupu, Noam. 2015. “Rethinking the Comparative Perspective on Class and Representation: Evidence from Latin America.” American Journal of Political Science 59 (1): 118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnes, Nicholas, and Lupu, Noam. 2016. “What Good is a College Degree? Education and Leader Quality Reconsidered.” Journal of Politics 78 (1): 3549.Google Scholar
Carnes, Nicholas, and Sadin, Meredith. 2015. “The ‘Mill Worker's Son’ Heuristic: How Voters Perceive Politicians from Working-class Families—and How They Really Behave in Office.” Journal of Politics 77 (1): 285–98.Google Scholar
Chattopadhyay, Raghabendra, and Duflo, Esther. 2004. “Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India.” Econometrica 72 (5): 1409–43.Google Scholar
Citrin, Jack, Green, Donald Philip, and Sears, David O.. 1990. “White Reactions to Black Candidates: When Does Race Matter?Public Opinion Quarterly 54: 7496.Google Scholar
Cozzarelli, Catherine, Wilkinson, Anna V., and Tagler, Michael J.. 2001. “Attitudes Toward the Poor and Attributions for Poverty.” Journal of Social Issues 57 (2): 207–27.Google Scholar
Cracknell, Richard, and McGuinness, Feargal. 2010. “Social Background of MPs.” House of Commons Library. Standard note #SN01528.Google Scholar
Crowder-Meyer, Melody Ara. 2010. “Local Parties, Local Candidates, and Women's Representation: How County Parties Affect Who Runs For and Wins Political Office.” Dissertation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.Google Scholar
Darcy, Robert, Welch, Susan, and Clark, Janet. 1994. Women, Elections, and Representation, 2nd ed. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska.Google Scholar
Darley, John M., and Gross, Paget H.. 1983. “A Hypothesis-confirming Bias in Labeling Effects.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44 (1): 2033.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen. 2004. Voting for Women: How the Public Evaluates Women Candidates. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen, and Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2011. “Candidate Gender and Experimental Political Science.” In Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science, eds. Druckman, James N., Green, Donald P., Kuklinski, James H., and Lupia, Arthur. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 289–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferejohn, John, and Rosenbluth, Frances. 2009. “Electoral Representation and the Aristocratic Thesis.” In Political Representation, eds. Shapiro, Ian, Stokes, Susan C., Wood, Elisabeth Jean, and Kirshner, Alexander S.. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 271303.Google Scholar
Fisher, Stephen D., Heath, Anthony F., Sanders, David, and Sobolewska, Maria. 2015. “Candidate Ethnicity and Vote Choice in Britain.” British Journal of Political Science 45 (4): 883905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiske, Susan T., Xu, Juan, Cuddy, Amy C., and Glick, Peter. 1999. “(Dis)respecting versus (Dis)liking: Status and Interdependence Predict Ambivalent Stereotypes of Competence and Warmth.” Journal of Social Issues 55 (3): 473–89.Google Scholar
Franck, Raphaël, and Rainer, Ilia. 2012. “Does the Leader's Ethnicity Matter? Ethnic Favoritism, Education, and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa.” American Political Science Review 106 (2): 294325.Google Scholar
Fulton, Sarah A. 2014. “When Gender Matters: Macro-dynamics and Micro-mechanisms.” Political Behavior 36 (3): 605–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerring, John. 2007. Case Study Research: Principles and Practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 2012. Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Griffin, John D., and Anewalt-Remsburg, Claudia. 2013. “Legislator Wealth and the Effort to Repeal the Estate Tax.” American Politics Research 41 (4): 599622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grose, Christian. 2013. “Risk and Roll Calls: How Legislators’ Personal Finances Shape Congressional Decisions.” SSRN Working Paper 2220524.Google Scholar
Hacker, Jacob S., and Pierson, Paul. 2011. Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, Jens, Hangartner, Dominik, and Yamamoto, Teppei. 2015. “Validating Vignette and Conjoint Survey Experiments Against Real-world Behavior.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 112 (8): 2395–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hainmueller, Jens, Hopkins, Daniel J., and Yamamoto, Teppei. 2014. “Causal Inference in Conjoint Analysis: Understanding Multidimensional Choices via Stated Preference Experiments.” Political Analysis 22 (1): 130.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Alexander. 1982 [1788]. Federalist 35. In The Federalist Papers, ed. Wills, Garry. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
Henry, William A., III. 1995. In Defense of Elitism. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Horwitz, Suzanne R., and Dovidio, John F.. Forthcoming. “The Rich—Love Them or Hate Them? Divergent Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward the Wealthy.” Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.Google Scholar
Hout, Michael, Manza, Jeff, and Brooks, Clem. 1995. “The Democratic Class Struggle in the United States, 1948–1992.” American Sociological Review 60: 805–28.Google Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald, and Norris, Pippa. 2003. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Iversen, Torbin, and Soskice, David. 2015. “Information, Inequality, and Mass Polarization: Ideology in Advanced Democracies.” Comparative Political Studies 48 (13): 1781–813.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. 2012. The Politics of Congressional Elections, 8th Ed. New York: Pearson.Google Scholar
Katz, Richard S. 2001. “The Problem of Candidate Selection and Models of Party Democracy,” Party Politics 7 (3): 277–96.Google Scholar
Lawless, Jennifer L. 2015. “Female Candidates and Legislators.” Annual Review of Political Science 18: 349–66.Google Scholar
Lawless, Jennifer L., and Fox, Richard L.. 2005. It Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lawless, Jennifer L., and Fox, Richard L.. 2012. It Still Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office (Rev. Ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lupu, Noam. 2014. “Brand Dilution and the Breakdown of Political Parties in Latin America.” World Politics 66 (4): 561602.Google Scholar
Lupu, Noam. 2016. Party Brands in Crisis: Partisanship, Brand Dilution, and the Breakdown of Political Parties in Latin America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lynch, Timothy R., and Dolan, Kathleen. 2014. “Voter Attitudes, Behaviors, and Women Candidates.” In Women and Elective Office: Past, Present, and Future, eds. Thomas, Sue and Wilcox, Clyde. Third ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Manin, Bernard. 1997. The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Matthews, Donald R. 1985. “Legislative Recruitment and Legislative Careers.” In Handbook of Legislative Research, eds. Loewenberg, Gerhard, Patterson, Samuel C., and Jewell, Malcolm E.. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McCarty, Nolan, Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard. 2006. Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
McElory, Gail, and Marsh, Michael. 2010. “Candidate Gender and Voter Choice: Analysis from a Multimember Preferential Voting System.” Political Research Quarterly 63 (4): 822–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Jana, and Buice, Melissa. 2013. “Latin American Attitudes toward Women in Politics: The Influence of Elite Cues, Female Advancement, and Individual Characteristics.” American Political Science Review 107 (4): 644–62.Google Scholar
Niven, David. 1998. “Party Elites and Women Candidates: The Shape of Bias.” Women and Politics 19: 5780.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 1997. Passages to Power: Legislative Recruitment in Advanced Democracies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa, and Lovenduski, Joni. 1995. Political Recruitment: Gender, Race and Class in the British Parliament. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa, Vallance, Elizabeth, and Lovenduski, Joni. 1992. “Do Candidates Make a Difference? Gender, Race, Ideology, and Incumbency.” Parliamentary Affairs 45: 496517.Google Scholar
Office of National Statistics. 2012. Region and Country Profiles—Economy, May 2012 (Excel sheet 1005Kb), sheet 13. Available online from http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/regional-trends/region-and-country-profiles/economy-may-2012/regional-profiles-economy-may-2012.xls (Accessed on January 20, 2016).Google Scholar
Pande, Rohini. 2003. “Can Mandated Political Representation Increase Policy Influence for Disadvantaged Minorities? Theory and Evidence from India.” American Economic Review 93 (4): 1132–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paxton, Pamela, and Hughes, Melanie M.. 2007. Women, Politics, and Power: A Global Perspective. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press.Google Scholar
Pessen, Edward. 1984. The Log Cabin Myth: The Social Backgrounds of the Presidents. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Phelps, Edmund S. 1972. “The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism.” American Economic Review 62: 659–61.Google Scholar
Philpot, Tasha S., and Walton, Hanes Jr. 2007. “One of Our Own: Black Female Candidates and the Voters Who Support Them.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (1): 4962.Google Scholar
Pimlott, Jamie Pamelia. 2010. Women and the Democratic Party: The Evolution of EMILY's List. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press.Google Scholar
Pitkin, Hannah Fenichel. 1967. The Concept of Representation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Sadin, Meredith. 2011. “Campaigning with Class: The Effect of Candidate Social Class on Voter Evaluations.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2002. “Gender Stereotypes and Vote Choice.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (1): 2034.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2003. “Gender-Related Political Knowledge and the Descriptive Representation of Women.” Political Behavior 25 (4): 367–88.Google Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2006. Where Women Run: Gender and Party in the American States. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Schwindt-Bayer, Leslie A., Malecki, Michael, and Crisp, Brian F.. 2010. “Candidate Gender and Electoral Success in Single Transferable Vote Systems.” British Journal of Political Science 40 (3): 693709.Google Scholar
Seltzer, R. A., Newman, J., and Leighton, M. Vorhees. 1997. Sex as a Political Variable. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Slater, Dan, and Ziblatt, Daniel. 2013. “The Enduring Indispensability of the Controlled Comparison.” Comparative Political Studies 46 (10): 1301–27.Google Scholar
Smith, Eric R. A. N., and Fox, Richard L.. 2001. “The Electoral Fortunes of Women Candidates for Congress.” Political Research Quarterly 54: 205–21.Google Scholar
Sojourner, Aaron. 2013. “Do Unions Promote Electoral Office-Holding? Evidence from Correlates of State Legislatures’ Occupational Shares.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 66 (2): 467–86.Google Scholar
Swers, Michele. 2002. The Difference Women Make. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, Sue. 1991. “The Impact of Women on State Legislative Policies.” Journal of Politics 53: 958–76.Google Scholar
Wängnerud, Lena. 2009. “Women in Parliaments: Descriptive and Substantive Representation.” Annual Review of Political Science 12: 5169.Google Scholar
Weeden, Kim A., and Grusky, David B.. 2005. “The Case for a New Class Map.” American Journal of Sociology 111: 141212.Google Scholar
Welch, Susan, and Studlar, Donley T.. 1988. “The Effects of Candidate Gender on Voting for Local Office in England.” British Journal of Political Science 18 (2): 273–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Erik Olin. 1997. “Rethinking, Once Again, the Concept of Class Structure.” In Reworking Class, ed. Hall, John. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Carnes and Lupu supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Carnes and Lupu supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 129.4 KB